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.
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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.
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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.
2023 Art21 at the Movies, Opening Night at Metrograph Theater. Pictured Left to Right: Esteban Cabeza De Baca, Tina Kukielski, Chiemi Karasawa, Linda Goode Byrant, Janet Olivia Henry, Miranda July, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Maren Hassinger. Photo: Jason Crowley/BFA.com © BFA 2023.
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.
Production still from upcoming Extended Play film featuring Anne Imhof © Art21, 2025.
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:
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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.
