10 Must See Art Exhibitions Opening or Closing in March 2025
Happy March! As we welcome a new month and the arrival of spring, there’s no better time to explore the fresh energy of the art world. This month, we’re highlighting 10 must-see exhibitions, both opening and closing, that offer inspiring and thought-provoking experiences. Don’t miss the chance to immerse yourself in these incredible exhibitions and make art a part of your March plans!
1. JP Jermaine Powell—Leadership Reimagined: Share Your Journey at The North Carolina Musuem of Art, Raleigh, NC.
Closes March 9, 2025
The show is a celebration of human resilience and what the artist refers to as “post pandemic leadership.” It showcases how members of both the local and global art communities discovered new ways to create, innovate, and lead during a challenging time in human history. Powell intentionally chose individuals who may not fit conventional definitions of leadership but whose stories of resilience and dedication inspire others. These people continue to grow, invest in themselves and others, share ideas, promote collaboration, and embrace adversity as a catalyst for success. He invites visitors to see themselves as part of a collective history being built by the leaders in all of us. (Follow on Instagram)
JP Jermaine Powell, Crown II: The Law of Kindness – Spirit of Ecstasy (Triptych), Portrait of Sanje James, Local Artist and Photographer, 2024, acrylic, gold leaf, metal, jewels, dried flowers, and paper on canvas, H. 60 × W. 96 × D. 2 1/4 in., Courtesy of the artist; © 2024 JP Jermaine Powell
2. The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970–2020 at MCA Chicago, Chicago, IL.
Closes March 16, 2025
The Living End: Painting and Other Technologies, 1970–2020 surveys the arc of painting over the last 50 years, highlighting it as a mode of artistic expression in a constant state of renewal and rebirth. This international and intergenerational group exhibition presents the work of more than 60 artists who have redefined painting using emerging technologies, imaging techniques, and their own bodies. Examining the impact that computers, cameras, and television, as well as social media and automation, have had on the medium, The Living End positions painting itself as a manual “technology” that has shifted further away from the immediacy of the artist’s hand over the past 50 years. The subsequent conceptual shift has led artists to challenge what constitutes a painting, how they are produced, and who (or what) can be considered a painter. (Follow on Instagram)
Avery Singer, The Studio Visit, 2012. Acrylic on canvas; 72 × 96 × 1 3/4 in. (182.9 × 243.8 × 4.4 cm). Private collection. © Avery Singer. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Roman März.
3. The Subversive Thread at The Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD.
Closes March 30, 2025
The Subversive Thread showcases four artists who challenge the conventional boundaries of fiber and thread art. Han Cao, Jennifer McBrien, Michael-Birch Pierce, and Stacey Lee Webber transcend these limitations through their use of unconventional textiles and techniques, thereby redefining the medium conceptually and aesthetically. Once considered an essential skill for cultured women in the 18th and 19th centuries, needlework is now often seen as a mere pastime or hobby. However, there has been a resurgence of interest in traditionally feminine artistic pursuits in recent years. Artists have begun to push the boundaries of what was once labeled fiber art, using unusual materials, methods, and conceptual approaches to challenge established norms and explore new possibilities. (Follow on Instagram)
Han Cao, Surge. 2023 (Copyright of Artist)
4. Where No Words Exist at Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, Niagara University, NY.
Closes March 9, 2025
Where No Words Exist explores the complex relationship between mental health and art, showcasing a diverse range of artworks that represent various emotional experiences and mental states. The exhibition aims to raise awareness about mental health issues, particularly among young people, while also demonstrating art's potential as a tool for healing, reflection, and emotional expression. Visitors can expect to see a variety of media, including paintings, sculptures, and interactive installations, that depict both the challenges of mental health struggles and the path towards wellness.
Melissa Miller (b.1951), Wall of Fire, 1986, acrylic on paper, 48 1/8 x 38 1/8 in. Collection of the Castellani Art Museum of Niagara University, Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Armand J. Castellani, 1996.
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5. The Journey Continues at The Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
Opens March 19 - August 31, 2025
The Anderson Collection is thrilled to introduce The Journey Continues, a celebration of contemporary women artists that adds new dimensions to the story of modern and contemporary art told by the museum. The exhibition will feature established and emerging artists such as Sadie Barnette, Masako Miki, Dee Clements, Arlene Shechet, Sheila Hicks, Michaela Yearwood-Dan, and several others, highlighting works made within the last ten years. The artworks are formally and materially inventive across sculptures, ceramics, weaving, textile work, and mixed media.
Michaela Yearwood-Dan. My sugah, my honey, my tenda lovah, 2024. Collection of Mary Patricia Anderson Pence
6. Marguerite Humeau: \*sk\*/ey- at the ICA Miami, Miami, FL.
Closes March 30, 2025
ICA Miami presents “\*sk\*/ey-,” a major solo exhibition for artist Marguerite Humeau (b. 1986, France; lives in London) comprising newly commissioned sculptures and video. The immersive installation marks Humeau’s first large-scale institutional presentation in the United States and sees the artist experiment with form through the abstract narratives of alternative worlds. Informed by the menace of climate change, these new sculptures pollinate, blossom, and armor, proposing a potentially inevitable mode of living, a post-human existence in which nomadic beings live in the air and are in perpetual motion.
Installation view: "Marguerite Humeau: \*sk\*/ey-" at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Dec 3, 2024 – Mar 30, 2025. Photo: Oriol Tarridas.
7. Theaster Gates: Wonder Working Power at Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, VA.
Closes March 9, 2025
Visitors will behold Theaster Gates’s passion for—and mastery of—the medium of clay. For Gates, the medium speaks not only to the ancient, elemental traditions of so many cultures but also to the precarious fragility of our contemporary selves. Using land development, sculpture, performance, and spatial theory to provoke dialogue and revitalize spaces of urban decay, Gates activates an astonishing array of materials to, in his words, “redeem spaces that have been left behind.”
Theaster Gates. Photo: Lyndon French.
8. Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon at Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN.
Closes March 16, 2025
The Art Districts Team has already covered this exhibition in detail if you want to learn more.
Stanley Whitney: How High the Moon presents the first retrospective exhibition of Stanley Whitney’s (US, b. 1946) unique and powerful abstractions made over the course of his 50-year career. In the early 1990s, Whitney began grounding rounded forms of color within loose grids. He arrived at his mature work in 2002, when he began creating square, richly colored, irregular gridded abstractions of vibrant hues. The exhibition contextualizes Whitney’s work within the artist’s diverse sources of inspiration, including music, poetry, American quilts, and the history of art and architecture.
Installation view. Photo: Courtesy of Author
9. Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling at The Modern of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, TX.
Opens March 15, 2025 - July 27, 2025
Feeling Color: Aubrey Williams and Frank Bowling, organized by the Modern and Curator María Elena Ortiz, celebrates the work of two tour de force artists, exhibited together for the first time, and highlighting their respective contributions to the story of late-twentieth-century abstract painting. After leaving their native Guyana, and though appearing to share similar territory in basing themselves in London, Williams and Bowling trod very separate paths in their respective artistic development and careers. In dialogue with Williams’s works are several paintings of Bowling’s influential Map series, 1967–71, and his later poured paintings, as evidencing sociopolitical concerns and exploring the materiality of paint.
Aubrey Williams, Maya Dynasty, 1980. Oil on canvas, 91 x 182 cm © Estate of Aubrey Williams. (Courtesy the Estate of Aubrey Williams and October Gallery, London)
10. LaToya Ruby Frazier: More Than Conquerors: A Monument for Community Health Workers of Baltimore, Maryland 2021-2022 at The Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore, MD.
Closes March 23, 2025
Initially created for the 58th Carnegie International, where it won the Carnegie Prize, the installation features a series of portraits and related narratives mounted on 18 socially distanced, stainless-steel IV poles that capture and celebrate the essential work of community health workers in Baltimore during the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. Powerful and deeply evocative, the large-scale installation monumentalizes the community health workers’ efforts and offers an alternative approach to monument-making that challenges us to consider the nature of how and who we honor.
Installation View. (Baltimore Musuem of Art)
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