Plot Synopsis

Using in-depth profiles and first-person interviews, ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY reveals the inspiration, vision and techniques behind the creative works of some of the most accomplished contemporary artists. Each 60-minute episode of Season 6 focuses on three contemporary artists, including: Ai Weiwei, El Anatsui, Catherine Opie, David Altmejd, Tabaimo, Lynda Benglis, Glenn Ligon, Mary Reid Kelley, Marina Abramovic, Rackstraw Downes, Robert Mangold and Sarah Sze. ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY returned for its seventh season on Friday, October 24, 2014 at 10pm on PBS (check local listings). Season 7 features a dozen artists from the United States, Europe and Latin America. In locations as diverse as a Bronx public housing project, a military testing facility in the Nevada desert, a jazz festival in Sweden and an activist neighborhood in Mexico, the artists reveal intimate and personal insights into their lives and creative processes. Each episode is organized around a theme that connects the artists: Investigation, Secrets, Legacy and Fiction.

PBS premiered the four-episode eighth season of ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY on Friday, September 16, 2016 from 9-11pm (check local listings), showing back-to-back new episodes, with the final two episodes debuting the following Friday. For the first time in the show's history, the episodes are not organized around an artistic theme. Instead the 16-featured artists in Season 8 are grouped by their unique and revealing relationships to the places where they live:

Chicago: Nick Cave, Theaster Gates, Barbara Kasten, Chris Ware
Mexico City: Natalia Almada, Minerva Cuevas, Damian Ortega, Pedro Reyes
Los Angeles: Edgar Arceneaux, Liz Larner, Tala Madani, Diana Thater
Vancouver: Stan Douglas, Brian Jungen, Liz Magor, Jeff Wall

Season 9 of ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY premiered on Friday, September 21, 2018 from 9-11pm on PBS (check local listings). The ninth season continues to center on cities, featuring four artists in each town. The new season opened with back-to-back new episodes:

"Johannesburg" (9pm): Travel to the artistic capital of sub-Saharan Africa and meet four artists from diverse backgrounds. They may come from different places, but they share a common goal: to use their art to pursue their visions for beautiful South Africa's future.
"Berlin" (10pm): Discover how Berlin's post-Cold War cultural and economic rebirth attracts artists from all over the world. From large-scale public projects to intimately personal ones, their art reflects their hopes for a better and brighter tomorrow.

Season 9's third and final episode (Sep 28 at 9pm) focuses on the San Francisco Bay Area, a magnet for artists who are drawn to its experimental atmosphere, countercultural spirit and history of innovation, and who are united by their steadfastness and persistence in creating.


ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY returned for its tenth season on Friday, September 18, 2020 at 10pm on PBS (check local listings). Season 10 introduces 12 artists and one artist collective behind some of the most significant artwork of the 21st century. These creators respond to the places they live and work, and show unabashed engagement with the world around them. Each episode again centers on a different city, including London, Beijing, and Borderlands.
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On Friday, April 7, 2023 at 10pm (check local listings), PBS premiered the 11th season of ART IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY. In the season opener, "Everyday Icons," four contemporary artists breathe new life into some of humanity's oldest artforms, icons and monuments, creating paintings, sculptures, and films out of everyday objects and popular culture. Includes Michelle Obama portrait painter Amy Sherald.