In 2025, major international art events took different forms: Art Basel brought galleries and collectors together in Switzerland, while biennials in Sharjah, Liverpool and São Paulo built public exhibitions around distinct places and ideas. Venice’s prominent event that year was an architecture exhibition, not its contemporary-art International Art Exhibition.
Major art exhibitions in 2025 at a glance
These highlights show a selection of prominent events, not a complete inventory or ranking of the year’s exhibitions. Dates and program details below come from the organizers; the events’ different formats and counts are not directly comparable.
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| Event | Format and location | 2025 dates | Organized scale or focus |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art Basel, 55th edition | Commercial art fair, Basel, Switzerland | June 19–22; preview days June 17–18 | Art Basel listed 289 galleries from 42 countries and territories. Its program included 67 large-scale works and performances in Unlimited and a Parcours exhibition themed “Second Nature.” |
| Sharjah Biennial 16, to carry | Public, multi-venue biennial across Sharjah and other locations in the emirate | February 6–June 15 | Sharjah Art Foundation’s program extended to Al Hamriyah, Al Dhaid, Kalba and Al Madam, as well as Sharjah City. |
| Liverpool Biennial 2025, BEDROCK | Public biennial, Liverpool, UK | June 7–September 14 | Curated by Marie-Anne McQuay, it brought together 30 artists and collectives, according to the organizer. |
| 36th Bienal de São Paulo, Nem todo viandante anda estradas – Da humanidade como prática | Large international exhibition in São Paulo, Brazil | Opened September 6; the program continued into January 2026 | The Fundação Bienal framed the edition around humanity as a practice, relating its proposition to Conceição Evaristo’s poem “Da calma e do silêncio.” |
| 19th International Architecture Exhibition, Venice | Architecture exhibition organized by La Biennale di Venezia | May 10–November 23 | The official 2025 calendar listed the architecture exhibition, alongside theater, dance, film and music festivals; it did not list a contemporary-art International Exhibition. |
How the biennials approached place and shared life
Sharjah: the open proposition of to carry
Sharjah Biennial 16 used the phrase to carry as an open-ended proposition about what people carry and how they respond to the places and cultures they inhabit. Its spread across several locations in the emirate made geography part of the event’s structure, rather than confining the program to one city venue. These details are from Sharjah Art Foundation’s biennial page.
Liverpool: BEDROCK as geology and social metaphor
For Liverpool Biennial 2025, curator Marie-Anne McQuay connected the city’s sandstone geology with the idea of social foundations. The theme let invited artists define “BEDROCK” in their own ways. McQuay described the city’s geology and psyche as starting points for the biennial’s conversations. The event’s title and curatorial framing are from the Liverpool Biennial organizer.
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São Paulo: humanity as practice
The 36th Bienal de São Paulo’s title, Nem todo viandante anda estradas – Da humanidade como prática, translates as “Not every wanderer walks roads – On humanity as practice.” The Fundação Bienal connected its proposition to Conceição Evaristo’s poem “Da calma e do silêncio,” and described listening, encounter, negotiation and respect as foundations of humanity. Because the program ran into January 2026, it is more accurate to describe the edition as opening in 2025 than as taking place entirely within that year.
Art Basel: the year’s commercial-fair counterpoint
Art Basel’s Basel edition represented a different model from the public, curator-led biennials: a major gallery fair organized around sales as well as public programming. The fair reported 88,000 attendees across preview and public days in 2025. It also launched the Art Basel Awards in Basel, honoring 36 medalists at a ceremony on June 19. The attendance figure, award count and characterization of sales come from Art Basel’s own post-fair announcement; its assessment of strong sales is the organizer’s account, not an independent market analysis.
That distinction matters when reading claims about what happened in the art world in 2025. A fair’s gallery count, a biennial’s artist count and an attendance total describe different things. Taken together, these events illustrate institutional variety across Switzerland, the Gulf region, the UK and Brazil; they do not establish a single measure of the year’s artistic importance or art-market health.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why Venice needs a calendar correction
“Venice Biennale” can refer to different parts of La Biennale di Venezia’s program. The official 2025 calendar named the 19th International Architecture Exhibition, running May 10–November 23, along with festivals in theater, dance, film and music. It did not list a contemporary-art International Art Exhibition for that year. Calling the 2025 Venice event an art exhibition would therefore confuse the architecture edition with the separate art exhibition.
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