The Don't Miss List: September '26
September is my favorite month of the year (file that under things everyone says). Yes, but I have my own reasons—it’s the month of my birth, my wedding anniversary, and the name of the undisputed top song by Earth Wind & Fire. It’s also action-packed culturally, which is why I’m curating this list for you. One of these years it will be my favorite because I'll finally get to the Venice International Film Festival (Italy) and Frieze Seoul (Korea), both coveted September events on the cultural calendar. For now, the below. Meet you there.
Leilah Babirye,Tuli Mukwano (We Are in Love) III, 2025. Glazed ceramic, wood, bicycle tire inner tubes, and found objects. 28× 16 1/2 × 8 1/2 inches (71.1 × 41.9 × 21.6 cm). Courtesy the artist; Gordon Robichaux; and Galerie Max Hetzler. Photo by Olympia Shannon. © Leilah Babirye.
Now on view at the ICA/Boston: Leilah Babirye: Embaga ya Naki ne Naki (Wedding of Naki and Naki).
After being outed as gay, artist Leilah Babirye fled Uganda, where homosexuality can carry a prison sentence or even the death penalty. Babirye’s ambitious ICA show stages a fictional celebration in response: a joyous gay wedding, with each elaborate sculpture playing its part.
Aug 27, 2026 – Jan 18, 2027. ICA/Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston.
*Bonus Don’t Miss ICA events:
September 24 : The Artist Voice: Njideka Akunyili Crosby with Ruth Erickson
September 27 : The Artist’s Voice: Lucy Raven with Ruth Erickson
September 9 at the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University: Fall Exhibitions Celebration
Catch up with fellow art lovers while celebrating the Rose's new season of shows: Jenna Gribbon: Entwined, ChromaForm, and En/Lighten: Material & Metaphor.
6–8pm. Rose Art Museum, 415 South Street, Waltham. Register here
*Cover Image: Jenna Gribbon, Shared warmth, 2022. Oil on linen. David Kordansky Gallery.
Janet Echelman Radical Softness installation view, Sarasota Art Museum. Photo: Ryan Gamma
Janet Echelman Radical Softness installation view, Sarasota Art Museum. Photo: Ryan Gamma
September 17 at Tephra ICA, Reston, Virginia: Janet Echelman: Radical Softness.
A mid-career retrospective for the artist best known for transforming city spaces with monumental illuminated net sculptures — here considered through her early drawings, paintings, textile works, and gallery-scale sculptures. The show, which travels from the Sarasota Art Museum, illuminates Echelman's evolving practice merging ancient craft with cutting-edge technology. Satellite installations and events are scheduled in the DC area, so you can make a trip of it.
Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art, 12001 Market St. Reston, Virginia.
Related events featuring the artist:
September 14: Artist Talk University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
September 16: Artist Talk with Janet Echelman Katzen Arts Center at American University, Washington, DC
The Armory Show, The Javits Center, New York.
September 24–27 at the Javits Center, New York: The Armory Show.
A cornerstone of New York's cultural landscape since 1994, the Armory is the fair that kicks the city's fall art season into gear. See and be seen, roam anonymously among the booths of 200-plus galleries from over 30 countries. Drink champagne from carts and make some new friends at the debut edition of Armory After Hours. This year's fair includes the tenth edition of Platform, foregrounding artistic practices from the Caribbean and its diaspora.
The Javits Center, 429 11th Avenue, New York. Tickets here.
Banu Cennetoğlu. right?, 2022-ongoing. Installation view: 58th Carnegie International, Carnegie Museum of Art. Courtesy of the artist and Sylvia Kouvali. Photo: Sean Eaton.
September 30–February 28, 2027 at the MassArt Art Museum: Banu Cennetoğlu: right? (2022–ongoing).
An evolving project in which the artist spells out articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in gold, helium-filled, mylar balloons. For the MAAM show, the Turkish artist and activist will interpret UDHR Articles 25 and 26, which guarantee a standard of living adequate for health and well-being (Article 25), and an education (Article 26). As the balloons deflate, separate, and sink towards the ground, the work becomes a meditation on the labor required to sustain rights treated as universal ideals but unevenly realized.
MassArt Art Museum, 621 Huntington Avenue, Boston.
Also - Don’t Miss concerts in the Boston area this month
Lily Allen
Kim Gordon
September 4. Lily Allen West End Girl . MGM Music Hall, Boston.
September 5. Violent Femmes 45 Years of Violent Femmes. Cape Cod Melody Tent, Hyannis.
September 6. Violent Femmes 45 Years of Violent Femmes. South Shore Music Circus, Cohasset.
September 12. Wu-Tang Clan. Wu-Tang Forever: The Final Chamber. Xfinity Center, Mansfield.
September 13. Kim Gordon. Play Me Tour. Paradise Rock Club, Boston.
September 19. Mt. Joy. Celebrating 10 Years of Mt. Joy. TD Garden, Boston.
September 22. Bikini Kill with Downtown Boys. Roadrunner, Boston.
September 24. Charli XCX Music, Fashion, Film Tour. TD Garden, Boston.
The Don’t Miss List is a lovingly curated list of things to see, do, read, listen to, and explore sent to you at the start of every month. If you would like to submit an event or idea, please email dontmiss@misstropolis.com.
Remember, the RSVP is yes.
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