August, with its warm summer days and a slightly slower pace in the art world, offers some special highlights for minimalist art enthusiasts this year.
In Provence, Château La Coste showcases meditative works by South Korean artist Ha Chong-Hyun. In Montpellier, Musée Fabre presents a major retrospective of works by French artist Pierre Soulages and in London, Cristea Roberts Gallery invites visitors to the first comprehensive exhibition of Josef Albers’ print portfolios. In Arundel, West Sussex, gallery57 brings together works with Western and Eastern influences in a group show. The Encounter Gallery in Lisbon is presenting new works by Johnny Abrahams and the exhibition PRESENT / PLACE at Tamworth Regional Gallery in Australia invites viewers to rediscover landscapes as vibrant, emotional spaces.
These are my favorites for this month. If you want to explore all shows, click here.
Ha Chong-Hyun – Light Into Color
Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, Château La Coste
22 June → 01 September 2025
Let’s start with an exceptional exhibition in the heart of Provence. Château La Coste presents a major solo show by Ha Chong-Hyun, a leading figure of Dansaekhwa, the Korean monochrome painting movement. Known for his “Conjunction” series, Ha pushes oil paint from the back of burlap, challenging traditional Western techniques and referencing Korea’s post-war history. Set in the Renzo Piano Pavilion, the exhibition places Ha’s meditative works in dialogue with the natural light and landscape of Provence.
More information here.
Group Show “Abstract Aesthetic”
Arundel, gallery57
02 August → 13 September 2025
In Arundel, West Sussex, gallery57 presents “ABSTRACT AESTHETIC,” a group exhibition featuring international contemporary artists with Eastern and Western influences. The show brings together works in various media, including painting, ceramics, mixed media, and tapestry.
Highlights include Japanese artists Maya Makino and Yoghe Matsuda, Korean artists Soon Yul Kang and Miae Kim, and British Chinese artist Alexandra Yan Wong. The exhibition also features Jack Havelock Bailey’s vessels using the Japanese Yakisugi technique and paintings by British artist Matthew Keers.
More information here.
The Sum Of The Parts: The Complete Portfolios Of Josef Albers
London, Cristea Roberts Gallery
12 June → 29 August 2025
Cristea Roberts Gallery in London presents the first exhibition dedicated to all of Josef Albers’ print portfolios. The show features eighteen portfolios created over fourteen years, using lithography, silkscreen, inkless intaglio, and embossing. The portfolios are rarely seen in their entirety and highlight Albers’s innovative approach to color and line.
Organized in collaboration with the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, the exhibition demonstrates Albers’s lasting impact on printmaking.
More information here.
Johnny Abrahams – Honey In The Hay, Hail In The Heather
Lisboa, Encounter Gallery
11 July → 10 September 2025
In the beautiful city of Lisbon, Encounter presents the debut exhibition by American artist Johnny Abrahams (b. 1979) with the gallery and in Portugal. The show features recent abstract paintings that highlight Abrahams’ signature use of raw hessian and layered oil paint. His minimal compositions reveal tactile depth and subtle surface variations, encouraging close observation.
Through rhythmic mark-making and a focus on materiality, Abrahams explores themes of time and perception, inviting viewers to reflect on the significance of both gesture and silence within painting.
More information here.
Pierre Soulages – La Rencontre
Montpellier, Musée Fabre
28 June → 04 January 2026
Also in southern France, more precisely in Montpellier, Musée Fabre is presenting a major exhibition dedicated to Pierre Soulages. The retrospective is the first of its scale in Montpellier and highlights the artist’s close ties to the city and the museum. Spanning three levels and 1,200 m², the exhibition features around 120 works, canvases, works on paper, as well as pieces in copper, bronze, and glass. This unique show explores Soulages’ artistic journey and his links with art history and his contemporaries.
More information here.
Group Show – PRESENT / PLACE
Tamworth, Tamworth Regional Gallery
05 July → 31 August 2025
PRESENT / PLACE explores the idea of landscape not as something fixed or distant, but as something alive shaped by memory, time, and our presence within it. Bringing together the work of Armando Chant, Sadhbha Cockburn, Justine Roche, and Belinda Yee, this exhibition invites us to look beyond the surface of the landscape and consider how we experience place through layers of feeling, history, imagination, and physical engagement. The artists each approach these ideas from different directions but are united by a deep interest in the ways landscape is felt, remembered, and transformed over time.
More information here.
