Founded in 1936 as the Boston Museum of Modern Art – a sister institution to New York’s MoMA – the museum was conceived as a laboratory where innovative approaches to art could be championed. The museum established a reputation for identifying important new artists, and in pursuit of this mission, eventually parted ways with MoMA and changed its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1948. As the ICA’s reputation grew around the nation, it paved the way for other institutes and museums of “contemporary art” as well as artists’ spaces and alternative venues.
The Institute of Contemporary Art strives to share the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, provocation, and imagination that contemporary art offers through public access to art, artists, and the creative process.
The primary activities of the ICA are threefold:
To present outstanding contemporary art in all media, including visual art exhibitions, music, film, video, and performance, that is deserving of public attention and has not been presented in depth to Boston audiences
To provide innovative experiential learning opportunities for people of all ages through direct encounters with artists and art-making
To design interpretative programs that provide context for, develop appreciation of, and add meaning to contemporary art and culture.
Founded in 1936 as the Boston Museum of Modern Art – a sister institution to New York’s MoMA – the museum was conceived as a laboratory where innovative approaches to art could be championed. The museum established a reputation for identifying important new artists, and in pursuit of this mission, eventually parted ways with MoMA and changed its name to the Institute of Contemporary Art in 1948. As the ICA’s reputation grew around the nation, it paved the way for other institutes and museums of “contemporary art” as well as artists’ spaces and alternative venues.
The Institute of Contemporary Art strives to share the pleasures of reflection, inspiration, provocation, and imagination that contemporary art offers through public access to art, artists, and the creative process.
The primary activities of the ICA are threefold:
To present outstanding contemporary art in all media, including visual art exhibitions, music, film, video, and performance, that is deserving of public attention and has not been presented in depth to Boston audiences
To provide innovative experiential learning opportunities for people of all ages through direct encounters with artists and art-making
To design interpretative programs that provide context for, develop appreciation of, and add meaning to contemporary art and culture.
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Relic 4: Larry AchiampongOct 16 – Dec 12, 2026This autumn, Larry Achiampong will present his new film Relic 4 (2026) at KARST, revisiting the cinematic universe of the Relic Traveller project after a six-year hiatus. Exploring themes of fallen empire, class, and displacement...
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The 90sOct 8, 2026 – Feb 14, 2027Guest curated by fashion industry game changer Edward Enninful OBE, whose lived experience of the decade informs the exhibition The 90s examines a defining period in which a groundswell of creativity changed
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Ingel Vaiklaartist / filmmakerIngel Vaikla is a visual artist and filmmaker from Estonia. She studied photography in Estonian Academy of Fine Arts (BA) and film in Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Gent (MA).
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Luo Yang: GirlsPublicationLuo Yang, female, born in 1984, liaoning Province China. Graduated from the lu Xun academy of Fine arts, now lives and works in Beijing as a freelance photographer. Girls has been an ongoing photography project since 2007, and has involved me shooting the girls around me...
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Repatriates Collective. Tide of ReturnsMar 28 – Oct 11, 2026Marking the beginning of the 2026 Ocean Space exhibition season, TBA21–Academy presents Tide of Returns, an exhibition running from March 28 until October 11, 2026, based on the artistic-research of the Repatriates Collective
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Jasper JohnsArtistJasper Johns was an artist that came onto the scene in the 1950s. Much of the work that he created led the American public away from the expressionism form, and towards an art movement or form known as the concrete.
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Kishio SugaLong-term viewKishio Suga brings together a representative group of the artist’s sculptures, dating from the 1960s to the ’90s, that probe the slippages between seeing and knowing. Works culled from Dia’s holdings are complemented by key loans...
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Fondation BeyelerMuseum / Riehen, SwitzerlandThe Fondation Beyeler is a museum of modern and contemporary art open 365 days a year. Its exhibitions of renowned artists of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries have brought the museum international recognition and established it as Switzerland’s most popular art museum.
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Julie Bullard / Nadia Lee Cohen & Martin ParrPublication
Julie Bullard, a work of photographic fiction by Nadia Lee Cohen and Martin Parr. The book is designed as a late-seventies photo album, closely modelled on an example acquired from eBay, complete with faux leather spongy board covers…
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New Humans: Memories of the FutureMar 21, 2026 - OngoingNew Humans: Memories of the Future will inaugurate the New Museum’s expanded building with an exploration of artists’ enduring preoccupation with what it means to be human in the face of sweeping technological changes. New Humans will trace a diagonal history of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries...
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Arnold J. Kemp: Not One ThingJul 28 – Dec 6, 2026
Arnold J. Kemp: Not One Thing is the first institutional survey of work by the Chicago-based artist Arnold J. Kemp (b. 1968, Boston). The exhibition focuses on Kemp’s performative and material tendencies of masking, traced through various media.
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39th Panorama of Brazilian ArtSep 12, 2026 – Jan 24, 2027Entitled After It’s All Said, 39th Panorama of Brazilian Art, under the curatorship of Diane Lima, questions where artistic production has overflowed in the search to expand the limits of aesthetic representation through a radical exercise of imagination.
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Panorama: Dreams and PlacesFeb 19 – Oct 18, 2026Aiming to present a thematic narrative on contemporary photography and lens-based art in Türkiye, “Panorama: Dreams and Places” brings together a comprehensive selection of works produced since the 2010s by 18 artists from different generations.
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Francisca García & Mario Navarro | Unearthed ConversationApr 3 – Sep 13, 2026Chilean artists Francisca García and Mario Navarro’s exhibition – ‘Unearthed Conversation’ – is inspired by the Atacama Desert. Located at the mouth of the Loa River in northern Chile, this is a landscape shaped by diverse narratives...
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World Press Photo 2026Winners & ExhibitionsWorld Press Photo is an independent non-profit organization that champions the power of photojournalism and documentary photography to deepen understanding of the world’s complexities, promote dialogue, and inspire action.
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Ordinary GriefA Story of ReconciliationOrdinary Grief is a story of tenuous reconciliation. In 2017, I returned to Iran after 25 years of self-exile, where I embarked on a personal and political reclamation of my identity and history.
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Schiaparelli: Fashion Becomes ArtMar 28 – Nov 8, 2026
The UK’s first exhibition on Elsa Schiaparelli spans the 1920s to today, celebrating the innovative designer’s influence. It traces the fashion house’s groundbreaking origins and its evolution under current creative director Daniel Roseberry.
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American Icon: The US Flag in ArtJun 6 – Dec 6, 2026
Across generations, the Stars and Stripes has inspired pride, protest, and profound artistic expression. From battlefields to modern cultural movements, our flag’s journey through art reveals a nation constantly redefining itself.
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