First U.S. Museum Exhibitions and Major Surveys Headline ICA Miami’s Winter 2025 Season
Featuring Landmark First Posthumous Surveys for Richard Hunt, Joyce Pensato;
First Major U.S. Institutional Solo Shows for Andreas Schulze, Masaomi Yasunaga;
Monumental Site-Specific Commission by Igshaan Adams
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) today unveils its winter 2025 season with five solo presentations that reflect the global diversity of contemporary art practice, spanning generations and encompassing painting, sculpture, ceramics, fiber, and immersive installation. Opening in December, the season features the most comprehensive museum survey to date for American painter Joyce Pensato alongside the first U.S. posthumous survey for renowned sculptor Richard Hunt. Building on its commitment to providing first institutional platforms for both rising and established artists, ICA Miami’s winter season features two first major U.S. solo museum presentations: a survey of the playful yet incisive work of German painter Andreas Schulze, and a sculptural presentation of works by ceramicist Masaomi Yasunaga. The season also includes a monumental site-specific stairwell commission by South African artist Igshaan Adams. Together, these exhibitions reflect ICA Miami’s mission to spotlighting genre-defining artists across generations.
“This dynamic mix of presentations reflects ICA Miami’s ongoing commitment to deep historical research, and to creating institutional platforms for artists and their work, often for the first time,” said Alex Gartenfeld, ICA Miami’s Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director. “From Richard Hunt’s engagement with modernism to Joyce Pensato’s fusion of expressionism and pop iconography, to the material innovations of Masaomi Yasunaga and Igshaan Adams, and to Andreas Schulze’s surreal, psychological paintings, each exhibition foregrounds an experimental vision of art history and practice. Collectively, they represent a global perspective on contemporary art.”
Joyce Pensato
December 2, 2025 – March 15, 2026
The most comprehensive museum exhibition to date for American artist Joyce Pensato (b. 1941, Brooklyn; d. 2019, New York), the presentation features some 65 works across five decades, including rarely seen works from the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s. The exhibition tracks the development of Pensato’s work, beginning with early drawings of Batman from 1976 and vivid gestural oil paintings from the 1980s, all the way to her monumental tableaux featuring larger than life cartoon characters. The exhibition charts Pensato’s developing visual language, and her unique synthesis of popular culture with the art historical languages of Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. The survey highlights canonical Mickey Mouse images, an inquiry into early 20th century icons Felix the Cat and Groucho Marx, and a critical engagement with the gaze of 21st century digital cartoons, resulting in a reflection on both the history of American culture and the transformations of technology over the past century. Joyce Pensato is curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director; Gean Moreno, Director, Art + Research Center; and Stephanie Seidel, Monica and Blake Grossman Curator; with assistance from Donna Honarpisheh, Associate Curator, Art + Research Center.
Richard Hunt: Pressure
December 2, 2025 – March 29, 2026
The first posthumous museum survey of renowned sculptor Richard Hunt (b. 1935, Chicago; d. 2023, Chicago), this exhibition features a selection of twenty-five sculptural works, exploring Hunt’s pioneering practice from the 1950s through the 2010s. An influential yet deeply under-recognized figure in American sculpture and modernism, Hunt examined nature and reflected upon modernity using welded steel, wood, and aluminum. The works on view trace Hunt’s evolution from early linear compositions to hybrid forms that engage themes of resilience, movement, and public memory—particularly through tributes to the Civil Rights movement. Hunt also transformed the American public landscape, producing more than 160 public sculptures nationwide, more than any other artist to date. This exhibition underscores his mastery of motion and scale, offering a renewed perspective on his lasting influence and contemporary relevance. The exhibition is curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director; and Gean Moreno, Director, Art + Research Center.
Igshaan Adams: Lulu, Zanele, Zandile, Savannah (Stairwell Commission)
December 2, 2025 – November 1, 2026
South African artist Igshaan Adams (b. 1982, Cape Town) presents a major new site-specific commission created for ICA Miami’s three-story stairwell, featuring four cascading tapestries and a constellation of suspended wire sculptures known as “dust clouds.” Composed of vivid threads, beads, and repurposed materials, Adams’ textiles shimmer with chromatic intensity and invite multiple vantage points as they descend through the museum’s central axis. Blending Sufi spiritual practices, ornamentation, and craft traditions, Adams’s work explores themes of embodiment, hybridity, and transformation. The suspended wire forms evoke both meteorological and mystical energy, referencing the vibrational force of dance and ritual movement. Igshaan Adams: Lulu, Zanele, Zandile, Savannah is organized by Gean Moreno, Director, Art + Research Center.
Andreas Schulze: Special
December 2, 2025 – March 8, 2026
Andreas Schulze marks the first solo U.S. museum exhibition on the German painter (b. 1955, Hanover), installed across four of ICA Miami’s ground-floor galleries. Featuring approximately a dozen paintings and three sculptures, including some of the earliest by the artist from 1982 to the present, the exhibition surveys Schulze’s distinctive visual language, marked by exaggerated perspective, stylized figuration, and a tension between structure and the surreal. Each gallery is thematically organized around concepts of domesticity, landscape, and existential reflection; and includes an immersive presentation of Schulze’s iconic automobile paintings. Andreas Schulze is curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director and Associate Curator Amanda Morgan.
Masaomi Yasunaga
December 2, 2025 – March 22, 2026
ICA Miami presents Masaomi Yasunaga – a major U.S. museum exhibition dedicated to the artist. Born in Osaka, Japan in 1982, Yasunaga is celebrated for his richly textured and highly varied vessel sculptures which often appear ancient or archeological. Installed across two ground-floor galleries, the immersive, site specific installation highlights Yasunaga’s unorthodox approach to material transformation and suggests themes of loss and discovery. Over the last decade, Yasunaga has inverted and disrupted ceramic procedures, allowing him to use glaze rather than clay as his primary sculptural medium. While questioning the fundamental materials and methodical order of ceramic production, Yasunaga has achieved the rare distinction of single-handedly introducing entirely new technical possibilities to millenia-old ceramic production.
Masaomi Yasunaga is curated by Alex Gartenfeld, Irma and Norman Braman Artistic Director and Amanda Morgan, Associate Curator.
Image captions (top to bottom): Joyce Pensato, I Must Be Dreamin’, 2007. Enamel on linen. 90 x 72 inches, 228.6 x 182.9 cm. Photo: Larry Lamay. © The Joyce Pensato Foundation. Courtesy of Petzel, New York; Richard Hunt, Opposed Linear Forms, 1961. Welded chromed steel. 134.6 x 213.4 x 137.2 cm, 53 x 84 1/8 x 54 1/8 inches.Courtesy of White Cube; Igshaan Adams, Zanele, 2025 (detail) © Igshaan Adams. Courtesy the artist, Thomas Dane Gallery, Casey Kaplan and blank projects. Photo: Mario Todeschini; Andreas Schulze, Untitled, 1982 © Andreas Schulze / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, Courtesy the artist and Sprüth Magers. Photo: Ingo Kniest.
Exhibition Support
Exhibitions at ICA Miami are supported by the Knight Foundation. Additional support for ICA Miami’s Stairwell Commission program is provided by Howard and Shelly Kivell.
Sustainability Commitment
ICA Miami is committed to reducing its climate footprint by adopting best practices for sustainability and partnering with organizations that focus on conservation. As part of this effort, ICA Miami has adopted sustainable shipping methods for all exhibitions and implements carbon offsets for select major exhibitions. ICA Miami is also the first museum in Florida to support the use of renewable energy and the growth of the sector. The museum matches 100% of its electricity consumption through the procurement of Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). In 2020, the museum was among the original grantees for the first Frankenthaler Foundation funding for sustainability efforts in the arts.
About the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami (ICA Miami) is dedicated to promoting continuous experimentation in contemporary art, advancing new scholarship, and fostering the exchange of art and ideas throughout the Miami region and internationally. Through an energetic calendar of exhibitions and programs, and its collection, ICA Miami provides an important international platform for the work of local, emerging, and under-recognized artists, and advances the public appreciation and understanding of the most innovative art of our time. Launched in 2014, ICA Miami opened its new permanent home in Miami’s Design District in December 2017. The museum’s central location positions it as a cultural anchor within the community and enhances its role in developing cultural literacy throughout the Miami region. The museum offers free admission, providing audiences with open, public access to artistic excellence year-round.
The Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami is located at 61 NE 41st Street, Miami, Florida, 33137. For more information, visit www.icamiami.org or follow the museum on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook and explore the ICA Channel for inside looks at ICA Miami exhibitions and the practices of the most exciting artists working today.
