Spotlighting the creative practices of 23 contemporary artists, Art21’s fall lineup expands public access to the words and works of the most impactful artists working today, including Sophie Calle, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Delcy Morelos, among others 

New York, New York—July 14, 2025—Art21 announces its Fall 2025 season of programs, including broadcast and digital premieres, film screenings, artist conversations, and in-person events spotlighting the most impactful artists working today. Curated by Tina Kukielski, Art21’s Susan Sollins Executive Director and Chief Curator, and Jurrell Lewis, Associate Curator, the fall lineup amplifies the voices of emerging and established artists, including Anne Imhof, Sophie Calle, Dyani White Hawk, Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ragnar Kjartansson, Josh Kline, and Delcy Morelos, among others. The fall also marks the 25th anniversary and 12th season of Art21’s acclaimed broadcast series Art in the Twenty-First Century, which launched on PBS in 2001 and remains the only series dedicated exclusively to contemporary visual art on public television. The season will premiere on October 17 and will be free and accessible online at Art21.org, on PBS, and YouTube. 

As the leading independent producer documenting the art of our time, Art21 was established with a mission to expand access to artists and their ideas, meet audiences where they are, and explore the salient connections between artists and their communities. To date, Art21 has created 80+ hours of films documenting over 300 artists across six continents.

“Our fall season boldly moves Art21 forward, weaving together a range of perspectives and practices that speak to the nuances of our contemporary moment,” said Tina Kukielski, Susan Sollins Executive Director and Chief Curator. “We are always guided by the artists we work with—their questions, their provocations, and their visions for what art can do. Their words and works serve as a guidepost, especially in times of crisis and change.” 

Highlights from Art21’s Fall 2025 season: 

Season 12 of Art in the Twenty-First Century
Episode 1 premieres on PBS on October 17, 2025
Dates for PBS premieres of Episodes 2 and 3 are slated for 2026. All films will also be available at Art21.org and YouTube following their premieres.
Watch the Trailer

Peabody Award-winning series Art in the Twenty-First Century returns for Season 12 on PBS, offering three new one-hour episodes. The biennial series is the only program on television in the U.S. to focus exclusively on contemporary visual art and artists. Viewers observe the artists at work, watch as they transform inspiration into art, and hear how they struggle with both the physical and visual challenges of achieving their visions. This landmark season builds upon a quarter century of shaping how audiences experience art and artists today. 

Continuing to expand storytelling, Season 12 takes a global approach by focusing on backgrounds, regions, and stories new to Art21. The season weaves together the stories of artists exploring the human experience, our environmental impact, colonial and imperial histories, the power of fantasy and fiction, and the art that exists around us each day.

• Between Worlds, directed by Bryan Chang and the Meerkat Media Collective production team
  The first episode of Season 12 follows artists Sophie Calle, Lubaina Himid, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Dyani White Hawk as they navigate the spaces in between, creating works that exist between cultures, storylines, migrations, and cosmologies. The film travels between the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; Buras, home of a Vietnamese fishing community in Louisiana; the century-old Southwestern Association for Indian Arts Santa Fe Indian Market; and the Musée Picasso in Paris.

• Realms of the Real, directed by Stephanie Wang-Breal
  The second episode shows how artists Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ragnar Kjartansson,  Candice Lin, and Tomás Saraceno push everyday materials and historical truths into the fantastical, absurd, and sublime. Sites featured include Europe’s oldest banana plantation outside Reykjavik, Iceland and the former Agfa photographic film and dye factory in Berlin.

• Human Nature, directed by Art21 senior producer Ian Forster
  The third and final episode of Season 12 spotlights how artists Lenka Clayton, Josh Kline, Delcy Morelos, and Sin Wai Kin explore what it means to be human, looking at our collective responsibilities, our influence on the built and natural environment, and our ways of being. Scenes move from the former Monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas, now an arts center in Seville, Spain; the countryside outside of Bogotá, Colombia; and the Troy Hill neighborhood in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Art21 at the Movies
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, 6:00–11:00 PM: Opening Fundraiser at Metrograph Theater
Friday, October 10, 2025, 10:00 AM–10:00PM: Film Festival at the Museum of Modern Art
Tickets will go on sale in August 2025 at the link here.

Art21’s biennial film festival, Art21 at the Movies, returns for two nights of screenings and conversations, including a premiere of the first episode of Season 12 of Art in the Twenty-First Century featuring artists Sophie Calle, Lubaina Himid, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Dyani White Hawk. The event offers attendees an opportunity to develop a deeper connection to the artists and filmmakers of Art21 productions, as well as several other award-winning filmmakers. 

New Film Releases Online
Ongoing throughout the fall
Art21.org and YouTube

Art21 debuts short films year-round across online channels, offering timely, intimate portraits of individual artists and collectives in a concise format. Extended Play films provide unmediated, behind-the-scenes insights into the works and practices of leading artists, uncovering the provocative ideas, timely cultural influences, and biographical anecdotes that inspire each artist. New York Close Up films are devoted to capturing early-career artists living in New York City, offering a unique window into the next wave of artmaking in the city. 

Upcoming releases include:

• Anne Imhof
  Premiering August 20, 2025
  This film follows Anne Imhof as she explores the archetypes of youth culture, and ever-shifting cultural norms through her latest performance, “DOOM.” From behind-the-scenes footage of rehearsals to documentation of the roving and immersive performance, this film offers audiences a look into the mind of one of the most celebrated performance artists of the 21st century.
• Lucy Raven
  Premiering September 17, 2025
  Traveling across the United States with artist Lucy Raven, this film offers a meditation on Raven’s trilogy, The Drumfire, where she filmically investigates the intertwined histories of image and industry in the mythmaking of the American West. Weaving together scenes that capture the beauty of the natural world, intimate looks at Raven’s filmmaking process, and the artist’s reflections on a body of work that spans over five years, this new film is a profound reflection on centuries of human impact on the western landscape.
• Trey Abdella
  Premiering December 10, 2025
  Trey Abdella mines the underbelly of American culture to create hyperrealistic multimedia works that defy neat categorization as painting, sculpture, or assemblage. This digital film captures Abdella working from his garage studio, packed with the enigmatic knick-knacks that he uses as material and inspiration, as he gives form to the saccharine sweetness and uncanny falsehood that is Americana.

Events and Programming
Ongoing throughout the fall

• Sophie Calle in Conversation
  September 9, 2025
  Complementing upcoming exhibitions of Sophie Calle’s work at Perrotin (September 4-October 18) and Paula Cooper Gallery (September 5-October 25), Art21 co-hosts a conversation with the artist and Bette Gordon, including an advance screening of Calle’s segment from the premiere episode of Season 12 Art in the Twenty-First Century.
• READ 2025
  Premiering July through December 2025
  Featuring interviews with artists and collectives Alanis Obomsawin, New Red Order, Eric-Paul Riege, Dyani White Hawk, and Alan Michelson, Art21’s digital publication, READ, will explore how artists use storytelling, beauty, humor, and tradition to address the past and present and better understand where we go next. Across paintings, sculptures, documentary films, public artworks, immersive installations, and more, these artists guide us into a future with dignity and agency for us all.
  All interviews will be available free on art21.org/read.
  
• Screening Society
  Through October 31, 2025, at multiple venues
  In celebration of Art21’s newest book, Artists & the Unknown: Art21 Interviews with Artists, Art21’s free program, Screening Society, returns, encouraging local communities across the country to gather and watch Art21 films together. Through the end of October, any organization or community group—whether a school, university, library, museum, senior center, or beyond—is welcome to host a public screening of an hour-long curated block of films. At no cost, Art21 provides hosts with materials and access to the films. This season features a selection of curated films highlighting artists Linda Goode Bryant, Sarah Sze, Josephine Halvorson, Rose B. Simpson, and Michael Rakowitz.
  Link to sign up here.
• Art21 Educators
  2025-26 academic year
  Building on the momentum of a week-long kickoff event in New York City this summer, the 2025-2026 cohort of Art21 Educators continue their year-long intensive experience remotely, working with Art21 to incorporate contemporary art, artists, and themes into their classroom curriculum. The program allows K-12 classroom educators to document and reflect practices that capture changes in personal growth, student learning, and classroom culture and participate in a professional learning community of supportive and reflective educational practitioners. Art21 regularly offers free teacher workshops virtually and in person and provides educator guides for their films and additional teaching resources available on Art21.org. Check the calendar to register for upcoming workshops here.

Download high resolution images

 

About Art21
Art21 documents the art of our time through the words and works of the most impactful artists working today. Operating at the nexus of contemporary art and film, Art21 produces intimate portraits of artists at crucial moments of creation, inviting audiences to see the world from an artist’s perspective. From its award-winning public television series to in-person public programs, education initiatives, and film screenings, to broadcasting documentary films free, online, and across social media platforms, the independent nonprofit is dedicated to meeting audiences where they are and to making contemporary art accessible to all. For more information, visit Art21.org.

 

#

            

Media Contacts
Hannah DeGarmo
Associate Director of Communications
[email protected]

 

Francesca Kielb/Hannah Holden/Annie Poole
Resnicow and Associates
[email protected]
734-548-0412 / 212-671-5154 / 212-671-5183