Must-see art exhibitions at ski resorts for the 2024/25 season
The ski season is upon us, and as many head to iconic resorts like St. Moritz, Gstaad, Courchevel, Aspen, Whistler, and Verbier, they’ll find these destinations offer far more than world-class slopes and après-ski relaxation. Alongside their breathtaking landscapes and top-tier skiing, these resorts are emerging as vibrant cultural hotspots, with an impressive range of art galleries and exhibitions to explore. From contemporary showcases to striking outdoor sculpture parks, these locations are transforming the winter getaway experience. This guide highlights the must-see art exhibitions this season, across Europe, the United States, and Japan—where the thrill of skiing is complemented by inspiring art.
Verbier 3-D Foundation Sculpture Park
Baby Bringer, Donna Dodson, 2011, Styrofoam, cement, acryl.
#FLODown: The Verbier Sculpture Park, located near the Verbier ski resort in Switzerland, features contemporary art with a focus on environmental themes. The park showcases outdoor sculptures created by international artists during residencies, with many works inspired by the Alps’ landscape. Managed by the Verbier 3-D Foundation, it currently displays 16 works from artists such as Olaf Breuning, James Capper, and Haroon Mirza. The park is easily accessible via hiking from the La Chaux and Ruinettes gondola stops. Additionally, the Creative Space in the village hosts exhibitions, workshops, and art activities. The 2025 Artist-in-Residence will be Cannupa Hanska Luger, exploring Indigenous perspectives on environmental issues. Click here to explore full details of the current displays.
Date: ongoing. Nearest ski resort: Verbier and the Four Valleys. Price: Free. Website: 3-dfoundation.com Instagram: @verbier3dfoundation.
All the Colors of Snow
Segantini Museum, St. Moritz. Image credit Ruch & Partners Architects.
#FLODown: All the Colors of Snow at the Segantini Museum in St. Moritz celebrates the beauty and symbolism of snow in Alpine art. Featuring winter landscapes by Giovanni Segantini, Giovanni Giacometti, Edoardo Berta, and other Italian Divisionists, the exhibition offers a captivating exploration of the Alpine landscape through their eyes. The museum’s exceptional collection provides a rare opportunity to delve into Segantini’s masterful use of light and his profound connection to the mountains. Dedicated to the works of Segantini, a pioneer of Alpine painting, the museum is home to his renowned La vita – La natura – La morte triptych, alongside 37 of his paintings and 26 drawings. This impressive collection also includes works by his contemporaries, offering a comprehensive view of his artistic legacy.
Date: 10 December 2024 — 20 April 2025. Nearest ski resort: St Moritz. Location: Segantini Museum St. Moritz, Via Somplaz 30, 7500 St. Moritz, Switzerland. Price: CHF 15. Website: segantini-museum.ch Instagram: @segantinimuseum
Léo Caillard – Winter Exhibition 2024/2025
Batman Thinker, Localisation : Sommet du Biollay (2 230 m d’altitude), Technique : Résine, Dimensions : 180 x 133 x 122 cm.
#FLODown: Since 2009, Galeries Bartoux and Courchevel Town Hall have collaborated each winter to create a magical artistic experience, transforming Courchevel and its summits into an open-air museum. Over the years, the resort has hosted works by renowned artists like Salvador Dalí, Jean-Michel Folon, and contemporary talents such as Bruno Catalano, Lorenzo Quinn, and Jiménez Deredia. The latest edition of Art au Sommet features five monumental sculptures by French artist Léo Caillard. Inspired by science and philosophy, Caillard’s neo-antique works reflect on history to address contemporary issues, with sculptures placed on mountain tops that poetically highlight the fragility of Alpine glaciers and the need to preserve the planet.
Date: 5 December 2024 - 30 April 2025. Nearest ski resort: Courchevel (part of the Three Valleys). Location: throughout Courchevel. Price: Free, accessible on foot or by skiing.Website: galeries-bartoux.com Instagram: @lesgaleriesbartoux.
New Masterpieces. Ulmberg Collection
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880 – 1938), Mountain Huts and Tinzenhorn, 1919–1920, Oil on burlap and cotton, 88,50 x 120,50 cm, Ulmberg Collection.
#FLODown: The Ulmberg Collection, one of Europe’s most important Classical Modernism collections, is now on display at the Kirchner Museum in Davos, near the popular ski resort of Davos-Klosters. The collection features works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, the Brücke group, Max Beckmann, Lyonel Feininger, and contemporary artists like Francis Bacon and Lucio Fontana. The New Masterpieces exhibition combines these works with pieces from the museum’s collection, showcasing the synergy between them. Highlights include Kirchner’s Expressionist masterpieces, post-war art by Pierre Soulages and Francis Bacon, and major 20th-century innovations in modern painting.
Date: 13 October - 3 January 2025. Nearest ski resort: Davos-Klosters Location: Kirchner Museum Davos, Promenade 82, 7270 Davos. Price: 15 CHF. Website: kirchnermuseum.ch. Instagram: @kirchnermuseumdavos.
Jean-Michel Basquiat: Engadin
Skifahrer (Skier), 1983, Courtesy Collection Carmignac © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York, Oil on canvas,70 x 90 x 2 cm / 27 1/2 x 35 3/8 x 3/4 in. Photo: Thomas Hennocque.
#FLODown: Hauser & Wirth will open Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin at its St. Moritz gallery, located in the heart of the Swiss Alps’ St. Moritz ski resort. The exhibition explores Basquiat’s connection to Switzerland, particularly the Engadin region, where he visited multiple times from 1982 onward. It features early works like The Dutch Settlers (1982), playful landscapes like Skifahrer (Skier), and collaborations with Andy Warhol and Francesco Clemente. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with essays from Dr. Dr. Dieter Buchhart and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer.
Date: 14 December 2024 – 29 March 2025. Nearest ski resort: St Moritz. Location: Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz, Via Serlas 22 7500 St. Moritz. Price: Free. Website: hauserwirth.com. Instagram: @hauserwirth
Rick Lowe: In Search of Light
Rick Lowe, Becoming, 2024, Acrylic and paper collage on paper, 44 x 60 inches (111.8 x 152.4 cm). © Rick Lowe Studio. Photo: Thomas Dubrock.
#FLODown: Gagosian in Gstaad will showcase In Search of Light, Rick Lowe’s debut exhibition in Switzerland, featuring new drawings, paintings on paper, and a major large-scale painting. Lowe’s work engages with shared spaces and structures, using abstraction to explore the connections between people and places. His vibrant works on paper, including Glyph Studies and Refuge Studies, use bold contrasts of light and dark, with a striking, saturated palette. The exhibition also introduces Ragtag-ish (2024), a sweeping 18-foot painting.
Date: 21 December 2024 - 26 January 2025. Nearest ski resort: Gstaad. Location: Gagosian, Promenade 79, 3780 Gstaad, Switzerland. Website: gagosian.com.
Luchita Hurtado: Earth & Sky Interjected
Luchita Hurtado, Encounter, 1971. Oil on canvas. 127 x 243.2 cm / 50 x 95 3/4 inches; 130.5 x 246.7 x 5.7 cm / 51 3/8 x 97 1/8 x 2 1/4 inches (framed). © The Estate of Luchita Hurtado. Courtesy The Estate of Luchita Hurtado and Hauser & Wirth. Photo: Jeff McLane.
#FLODown: Luchita Hurtado: Earth & Sky Interjected is currently on at the Harwood Museum of Art, celebrating the nearly 80-year career of the Venezuelan-born artist, known for her exploration of universality and transcendence. Hurtado’s innovative work blends abstraction, mysticism, corporality, and landscape, shaped by her multicultural and experiential life. After immigrating to the United States in 1928, she lived in New York City, Mexico City, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Santa Monica, California. Her frequent visits to Taos, New Mexico, beginning in the 1970s, deeply influenced her art and life, a theme central to this exhibition. Honoured as one of TIME 100 most influential people in 2019, Hurtado held her first solo museum show at age 98. She passed away in 2020, leaving a lasting legacy of groundbreaking creativity. The museum is located near the Taos Ski Valley in New Mexico.
Date: 27 July 2024 - 23 February 2025. Nearest ski restort: Taos Ski Valley. Location: The Harwood Museum of Art, 238 Ledoux Street, Taos, New Mexico. Website: harwoodmuseum.org Instagram: @harwoodmuseum.
Alejandro Cardenas: OLYMPIA
Alejandro Cardenas, Pale Blue Dot, 2024, Oil on linen, 127 x 101.6 cm 50 x 40 in.
#FLODown: OLYMPIA, Alejandro Cardenas’s sixth solo exhibition with Almine Rech Gstaad, will open in December. The exhibition will examine the role of painting in today’s image-driven culture, featuring a series of narrative works where unreal characters interact with fire in a dynamic pictorial landscape. Drawing loosely from mythology, Cardenas’s influences range from art historical figures like Manet, Cézanne, Balthus, and Henry Moore, to contemporary elements such as car mechanics, post-modernist furniture, Instagram memes, and insect forms, creating a distinctive blend of past and present.
Date: 21 December 2024 - 2 February 2025. Location: Almine Rech Gstaad, Chalet Wilibenz, Bahnhofstrasse 1, 3780 Gstaad, Switzerland. Website: alminerech.com. Instagram: @alminerech.
Art Gstaad 2025
Image courtesy of Art Gstaad.
#FLODown: Art Gstaad will return in 2025 for its second edition, bringing contemporary art to one of the world’s most exclusive ski resorts. The event will feature around 25 prestigious galleries, including renowned names like kurimanzutto, Mennour, Perrotin, White Cube, and Galerie Mitterrand, alongside exciting new additions such as PACE Gallery, Marian Goodman, and Rodolphe Janssen. This year’s edition will also highlight emerging galleries like Gathering, reinforcing Art Gstaad’s commitment to supporting fresh, visionary talent. Set in the heart of the Bernese village, the showcase offers a unique opportunity to experience world-class art in between skiing sessions!
Date: 14 – 16 February 2025. Location: Festival Zelt Gstaad, Switzerland. Website: mazepresents.com Instagram: @maze.presents.
Nick Brandt: The Echo of Our Voices
Nick Brandt, Zaina, Laila and Haroub, archival pigment print.
#FLODown:The Echo of Our Voices at Gilman Contemporary is the fourth chapter in Nick Brandt’s The Day May Break series, focusing on the effects of climate change. This chapter highlights the struggles of Syrian refugees in southern Jordan who must frequently relocate due to water scarcity. Brandt’s photographs, marked by empathy and reverence, spotlight their resilience and the power of human connection amid hardship. The images feature families posed on pedestals of stacked boxes, symbolising their dignity and strength despite being largely unseen. The exhibition, located near the Sun Valley Ski Resort in Idaho, encourages viewers to engage with these individuals’ stories and hear the soft echo of their voices.
Date: 13 December 2024 - 23 January 2025. Location: Gilman Contemporary 661 Sun Valley Rd, Ketchum, ID 83340, USA. Website: gilmancontemporary.com. Instagram: @gilmancontemporary.
Marc Chalmé: Dreamer
Marc Chalmé, Dreamers II 162x130cm.
#FLODown: Marc Chalmé’s exhibition, Dreamer, at Gallery Elle in St. Moritz, Switzerland, showcases his mastery of mysterious landscapes, still lifes, and figurative works, with a striking focus on light. His paintings feature an almost eerie, organic glow that seems to emanate from within, creating a palpable experience for viewers.
Date: 6 December 2024 - 30 March 2025. Nearest ski resort: St Moritz. Location: Gallery Elle Fine Art St. MoritzVia Chasellas 1, 7500 St. Moritz, Switzerland. Website: galleryelle.com Instagram: @gallery_elle.
Heji Shin’s America: Part One
Heji Shin, Untitled, 2024. Courtesy of the artist.
#FLODown: Heji Shin’s America: Part One presents newly commissioned photographs that explore vitality and elemental forces. The exhibition features two main series: one captures rockets in mid-air, photographed during Shin’s time embedded with NASA’s press corps at Cape Canaveral, Florida, showcasing scenes of vertical acceleration that blur the line between triumph and play. The other series consists of turbulent ocean waves photographed just before a hurricane, invoking the power and spiritual energy of the sea, echoing the work of American painter Winslow Homer. Together, these works offer a view of America through its periphery, emphasising the elemental forces of air, fire, sea, and earth.
Date: 20 November 2024 – 2 March 2025. Location: Aspen Art Museum, 637 E Hyman Ave, Aspen, CO 81611, USA. Price: Free. Website: aspenartmuseum.org Instagram: @aspenartmuseum.
The Aspen Art Museum is an artist-founded institution supporting bold ideas in the art world. Other exhibitions currently on show include Shuang Li’s I’m Not (20 Nov 2024 – 2 Mar 2025), her first institutional solo show with the Swiss Institute, New York; Ugo Rondinone’s The Rainbow Body (12 Dec 2024 – 30 Mar 2025), a retrospective spanning three decades; and Megan Marrin’s Austerity (12 Dec 2024 – 23 Feb 2025), inspired by Jean-Michel Frank’s designs. Ongoing displays include Nairy Baghramian’s Sitzengebliebene (Stay Downers) and Lena Henke’s You and Your Vim, both running until 2025. Additionally, Alex Israel will have an exhibition at the museum in 2025.
Nancy Lovendahl: Listen or Your Tongue Will Make You Deaf
Nancy Lovendahl’s Listen or Your Tongue Will Make You Deaf is currently being exhibited at the Brick Center for the Arts until 3 January 2025.
#FLODown: Nancy Lovendahl’s Listen or Your Tongue Will Make You Deaf is currently being exhibited at the Brick Center for the Arts, located near Snowmass Ski Resort in Snowmass Village, Colorado. The sculptural mural explores themes of listening, perception, and identity, inspired by a Cherokee proverb and the 2020 US census. It features 206 unique ceramic and resin pieces representing the racial demographics of the nation, crafted through intricate techniques involving stone carving, moulding, glazing, and resin casting.
Date: 1 October 2024 - 3 January 2025. Nearest ski resort: Snowmass Village, Colorado. Location: Red Brick Center for the Arts, 110 E Hallam St #120, Aspen, CO 81611, United States. Price: Free. redbrickaspen.com. Instagram: @redbrickaspen.
Curve! Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast
Dale Marie Campbell, Woman who Brought the Salmon, 2021, alder, abalone and pigment, Private Collection.
#FLODown: Curve! Women Carvers on the Northwest Coast at the Audain Art Museum celebrates the vital contributions of women to Northwest Coast carving. The exhibition features 127 works by both historical and contemporary artists, spotlighting influential figures such as Ellen Neel and Freda Diesing, alongside emerging talents like Cherish Alexander. Located near Whistler Blackcomb, the largest ski resort in North America, the museum is renowned for its exceptional collection of Emily Carr’s works, Indigenous masks, and Vancouver photo conceptualism.
Date: 23 November 2024 – 5 May 2025. Nearest ski resort: Whistler Blackcomb. Location: Audain Art Museum, 4350 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, V8E 1N3.Website: audainartmuseum.com. Instagram: @audainartmuseum
Toulouse-Lautrec: Elegance of the Master of the Belle Époque
Toulouse-Lautrec: Elegance of the Master of the Belle Époque at The Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Nagano Prefecture, Japan,
#FLODown: The Matsumoto City Museum of Art, located near the ski resorts of Hakuba Valley and Shiga Kogen in Nagano Prefecture, Japan, will showcase Toulouse-Lautrec: Elegance of the Master of the Belle Époque in January 2025. Featuring around 240 works from the prestigious Firos Collection, the exhibition highlights Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s lithographs, posters, illustrations, and personal letters, offering insight into the renowned French artist’s life and art. The museum is also known for its permanent Yayoi Kusama exhibit, immersing visitors in the world of the Matsumoto-born artist, alongside works by other Japanese artists inspired by the region.
Date: 18 January - 6 April 2025. Nearest ski resort: Hakuba Valley. Location: 4-2-22, Chuo, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano-ken. 4-2-22, Chuo, Matsumoto-shi, Nagano-ken. Price: 1,500yen (1,600 yen at the door). Website: matsumoto-artmuse.jp.
Click here for our guide to unmissable art shows happening at museums and galleries in London this Christmas.
