Chicago is celebrating one of photography’s boldest spirits. The Art Institute of Chicago presents Lee Miller: Fearless, on view August 29 through December 7, 2026 — the first comprehensive survey of Miller’s photographs in more than 25 years.
The exhibition gathers nearly 150 works tracing an extraordinary life: fashion model in 1920s New York, Surrealist innovator in Paris alongside Man Ray, studio owner, adventurer, and later a celebrated Vogue battlefield correspondent. Portraits of friends like Charlie Chaplin and Pablo Picasso share the spotlight with experiments in Surrealist technique and scenes from Miller’s travels in Egypt, several shown publicly for the very first time.
Organized by the Art Institute in collaboration with Tate Britain and the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the show honors a woman who reinvented herself again and again — always on her own terms. It is a joyful invitation to discover an artist who lived life full throttle and left behind images that still dazzle.
Plan your visit at the Art Institute of Chicago, 111 S. Michigan Avenue.
Photo: The Art Institute of Chicago. © 2026 Lee Miller Archives, England. All rights reserved. www.leemiller.co.uk
