Top art exhibitions in Amsterdam autumn 2025
Amsterdam is a beautiful city to visit in the autumn, with its canals framed by colourful leaves and crisp, atmospheric streets perfect for exploring. To help plan your cultural itinerary, we’ve put together a guide to some of the art exhibitions worth visiting this season. Highlights include Sandra Mujinga’s immersive Skin to Skin at the Stedelijk Museum, where sculptural figures and shifting light explore identity and visibility, and the H’ART Museum’s presentation of Constantin Brancusi’s revolutionary sculptures from the Centre Pompidou. These exhibitions are a perfect mix of contemporary art and timeless masterpieces.
Sandra Mujinga: Skin to Skin
Installation view Sandra Mujinga - Skin to Skin, Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, 2025. Photo: Peter Tijhuis
#FLODown: Sandra Mujinga’s Skin to Skin transforms the Stedelijk Museum’s lower gallery into an otherworldly environment of light, sound, mirrors and sculptural forms. Fifty five identical figures occupy the space, some raised on pedestals and others receding into shadow, while mirrors multiply their presence to suggest a single shape shifting body, a hidden community or an emergent species. Drawing on science fiction, Mujinga explores identity replication, digitalisation and the ways in which Black bodies are perceived or overlooked in public spaces. She raises questions about what it means to be visible when replicated, surveilled or lost in plain sight.
Date: 13 September 2025 - 11 January 2026. Location: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Paulus Potterstraat 13, 1071 CZ Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: from 22 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Brancusi: The Birth of Modern Sculpture
Gallery view of the Constantin Brancusi exhibition at the H’Art Museum – Image credit Aad Hoogendoorn. Collection Centre Pompidou, Paris. Musée national d’art moderne – Centre de création industrielle. © Succession Brancusi.
#FLODown: The H’ART Museum brings together over 31 masterpieces from the legendary sculptor Constantin Brancusi in the exhibition Brancusi: The Birth of Modern Sculpture. Showcasing iconic works such as The Kiss, Princess X, and the Endless Column, alongside the artist’s original pedestals, photographs, and films, the exhibition highlights Brancusi’s revolutionary approach to sculpture. By simplifying forms and working directly in materials like stone, wood, and plaster, he captured the “essence” of humans, animals, and architecture, breaking from traditional methods and inspiring generations of artists, including Marcel Duchamp and Modigliani. On loan from the Centre Pompidou, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to experience the sculptor’s influential work together in one place in Amsterdam.
Date: 20 September 2025 – 18 January 2026. Location: H’ART Museum, Spuistraat 175, 1012 VR Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: Adults 27.50 EUR ; Students/CJP 17.50 EUR; Uitpas 16.50 EUR; Museum Pass 5 EUR; Free for youth under 17 and certain cardholders. Book now
Steve McQueen: Occupied City
Steve McQueen, Occupied City
#FLODown: Steve McQueen’s Occupied City is a 34-hour film that presents two interlocking portraits of Amsterdam. Drawing on Bianca Stigter’s Atlas of an Occupied City: Amsterdam 1940–1945, the work combines a detailed, door-to-door account of the Nazi occupation with reflections on recent years of pandemic and protest. The film is displayed continuously on the museum’s façade, while a version with sound and voice-over is shown in the Rijksmuseum auditorium during specified weekend hours. The exhibition coincides with Amsterdam’s 750th anniversary and the commemoration of 80 years of liberation.
Date: 11 September 2025 – 25 January 2026. Location: Rijksmuseum, Museumstraat 1, 1071 XX Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: 25 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Erwin Olaf’s retrospective Freedom
Erwin Olaf, 'I Wish, I Am, I Will Be', (2009). © Erwin Olaf, courtesy Gallery Ron Mandos Amsterdam
#FLODown: Erwin Olaf’s retrospective Freedom at the Stedelijk Museum presents a comprehensive overview of his career, showcasing the artist’s versatility and creative vision. The exhibition brings together both renowned and lesser-known works, including photographs, videos, sculptures, commercial commissions, and material from his personal archive, culminating in his unfinished final video, For Life. Known for meticulous staging, distinctive lighting, and provocative themes, Olaf explores identity, sexuality, gender, the human body, nightlife, and social activism, with freedom and diversity at the core of his practice. Charting his progression from early black-and-white reportage to carefully constructed studio photography and recent series responding to contemporary social issues, such as Im Wald, April Fool, Palm Springs, Shanghai, and Muses, the exhibition highlights his enduring commitment to personal liberty and social engagement, confirming his status as one of the Netherlands’ most celebrated photographic artists.
Date: 11 October 2025 – 1 March 2026. Location: Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, Paulus Potterstraat 13, 1071 CZ Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: from 22 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Van Gogh and the Roulins. Together Again at Last
Vincent van Gogh, Lullaby: Madame Augustine Roulin Rocking a Cradle (La Berceuse), 1889, oil on canvas, 92.7 × 72.7 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Bequest of John T. Spaulding. Photograph © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
#FLODown: Van Gogh and the Roulins. Together Again at Last reunites for the first time many of the portraits Vincent van Gogh painted of postman Joseph Roulin, his wife Augustine, and their children Armand, Camille, and Marcelle. Created during Van Gogh’s intense period in Arles (1888–1889), these works reflect his ambitions as a portrait painter, his admiration for 17th-century masters, and his deep personal connection to the family, who provided him with warmth and companionship he never had. The exhibition also offers family-friendly activities, including treasure hunts, audio tours, and a reconstruction of Van Gogh’s Yellow House studio, as well as painting workshops and short guided tours, showcasing both the artistic and human story behind these remarkable portraits.
Date: 3 October 2025 – 11 January 2026. Location: Van Gogh Museum, Museumplein 6, 1071 DJ Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: 24 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Rembrandt Open Studio: Pris Roos
Pris Roos. Image credit Aad Hoogendoorn
#FLODown: Pris Roos presents her work at the Rembrandt Open Studio, bringing contemporary art to life in the museum. Until 4 January 2026, she will be on-site two days a week, creating a large-scale installation of a “new home” from recycled cardboard and pastels. Each room reflects the personal story of an individual, shaped by conversations about what “home” means to them. The cardboard, sourced from her parents’ shop, carries memories of items brought to the Netherlands from around the world and connects the work to ideas of culture, belonging, and memory. The exhibition continues the Rembrandt House Museum’s tradition as an artist’s home, giving visitors a rare opportunity to see contemporary art taking shape in real time.
Date: 26 September 2025 – 4 January 2026. Location: Rembrandt House Museum, Jodenbreestraat 4, 1011 NH Amsterdam, Netherlands. Price: 21.50 EUR. Concessions available. Book now
Amsterdam Light Festival
Amsterdam Light Festival
#FLODown: The 14th Amsterdam Light Festival opens on 27 November 2025, transforming the city’s canals and streets with new works of light art. Under the theme Legacy, 20 international artists present pieces reflecting memory, connection, and change. Featured works include Alicia Eggert’s neon text installations, M Moser Associates’ interactive Rhapsōdia, which turns public messages into moving light and sound, Filip Roca’s dynamic façade projections, Esther Rolinson’s mix of hand-drawn and digital media, and Henry Hu’s marine-inspired digital installation. The festival invites visitors to experience Amsterdam’s historic streets and canals in a fresh light.
Date: 27 November 2025 – 18 January 2026. Location: Various locations across Amsterdam. Price: Free to view from the canals and streets, ticketed boat tours available from 29.75 EUR. Book now
