Walking through an art gallery or exhibition is rather like being invited to a series of private audiences with history’s most audacious minds. Each canvas or sculpture has its own backstory, whether it be the fevered brushstrokes of a modernist attempting to upend centuries of tradition or the careful precision of a Renaissance master showing off. And, of course, there’s the sport of watching other visitors—some earnestly trying to decode the mysteries of abstraction, while others nod sagely as if they were on a first-name basis with Picasso. The real joy, of course, lies in the interplay between the art and its admirers. So here is our choice of exhibitions to keep you busy until Christmas.
Le Corbusier And Pierre Jeanneret For Chandigarh: An Exhibition of Historic Furniture
From The Private Collection Of Rajan Bijlani, Now - 4th October, Blue Mountain School, 9 Chance St, London, E2 7JB
A globally significant and extremely rare collection of furniture designed by architects, Pierre Jeanneret and Le Corbusier, for the Northern Indian city of Chandigarh in the early 1950s, is on view for the first time publicly at Blue Mountain School.
Following the enormous success of the exhibition, ‘Presence: The figure in British postwar and contemporary sculpture’ at Messums West, a curated selection of nine of the artworks included in the show will now tour for a limited time to Messums London. These exceptional sculptures will join the exhibition of John Walker’s paintings, on display in the Cork Street gallery, presenting a stimulating juxtaposition between Walker’s abstract works on paper and canvas, and the figurative bronzes of sculptors, Henry Moore, Reg Butler, Lynn Chadwick, Kenneth Armitage, William Turnbull and Elisabeth Frink – artists who achieved international stardom in the late 20th century and created a culture of formal innovation that was further developed by a younger generation of British artists, including Walker, whose pioneering work has placed him at the heart of the global dialogue around abstraction in the last 50 years.
Flowers Gallery is delighted to present Ice Moon Fire Land by Victoria Crowe, which will run concurrently with the artist's solo show at the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness, Orkney. Influenced by the artist's recent residency in Orkney, the works in this exhibition take inspiration from nature and its transformations during the white nights of the summer solstice and the dark splendour of midwinter. Exploring the ephemerality and fragility of the natural world through evocative depictions of the changing seasons and landscapes in the Scottish Borders where Crowe lives, the paintings invite the viewer to reconsider their perspective and relationship with the environment.
Portland gallery is thrilled to announce their first solo exhibition of works by Romy Elliott. The show explores all aspects of the artist’s oeuvre including scenes of the Palio di Siena, loyal dogs and elegant horses. Filled with character and movement, these intimate scenes of handlers and their trusted companions will be on display on the first floor of the gallery for three weeks this autumn.
Zhan Chong (b. 1983, Zhejiang, China) lives and works in Beijing, China. His paintings are both descriptive representations of everyday ‘artifacts’ and portraits of a psychological state: a sense of tension, or a palpable change in the air (pressure). Chong’s hometown, Lishui, was often affected by typhoon weather, and before each typhoon, a state of low pressure pervaded the surroundings - a storm was imminent. In recent years, despite having been away from home for many years, this feeling– a sense of being ‘on edge’– has begun to resurface in his body, and subsequently his work.
Yayoi Kusama: EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE, Now - 2nd November, Victoria Miro, 16 Wharf Road, London, N1 7RW
Yayoi Kusama: EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE offers a rare chance to experience a new Infinity Mirrored Room – Beauty Described by a Spherical Heart and introduces works from the artist’s latest series of paintings and sculptures installed across the gallery and waterside garden. The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication, available from 29th October, and features text by the Japanese poet, critic and curator, Akira Tatehata.
Antonio Calderara: A Certain Light, Now - 22nd December, Estorick Collection, 39a Canonbury Square, London, N1 2AN
Antonio Calderara (1903-1978) is renowned for his delicate and exquisitely balanced abstract imagery which, in its restraint and subtlety, exhibits affinities with the work of Giorgio Morandi. He lived and worked around Lake Orta in the north of Italy – a landscape that offered him constant inspiration and which was inextricably linked with the character and development of his art.
In her first solo exhibition at a major UK institution, Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum fills The Curve with theatrical installations, building an imagined world in which to display her paintings. Enter a world of Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum’s creation in ‘It Will End in Tears’. They move through a series of life-size dioramas, viewing paintings in a narrative sequence, as a story unfurls of a ‘femme fatale’ film noir character living in an imagined colonial outpost. They find out what happens when their main character deviates from the norm and doesn’t follow the rules dictated to her by society. Featuring drawing, painting and installation, Sunstrum’s artworks reflect her experience of living across Africa, Southeast Asia, and North America. Her boundary-crossing practice is imbued with formative experiences of a life lived at, across, and in the liminal spaces between borders, alongside notions of home and wholeness.
The Griffin Catalyst Exhibition: Monet and London. Views of the Thames will realise Monet’s unfulfilled ambition of showing this extraordinary group of paintings in London, and just 300 metres from the Savoy Hotel where many of them were painted. By presenting the paintings Monet himself selected for his public in Paris and London, it will provide visitors with the unique experience of seeing the show Monet curated and the works he felt best represented his ambitious artistic enterprise — brought together for the first time 120 years after their inaugural exhibition.
Be blown away by Van Gogh’s most spectacular paintings in their once-in-a-century exhibition. Walk with a pair of lovers beneath a starry night. Look up at swirling clouds and cypress trees swaying in the wind. Stay a little while in Van Gogh’s favourite park, the ‘Poet’s Garden’, or under a shady tree in Saint-Rémy. They’re bringing together your most loved of Van Gogh’s paintings from across the globe, some of which are rarely seen in public. They will be paired together with his extraordinary drawings. Over just two years in the south of France, Van Gogh revolutionised his style in a symphony of poetic colour and texture. He was inspired by poets, writers and artists. They look at this time in Arles and Saint-Rémy as a decisive period in his career. His desire to tell stories produced a landscape of poetic imagination and romantic love on an ambitious scale.
Jamaican-born sculptor Ronald Moody is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. This major exhibition, guest curated by Moody specialist Ego Ahaiwe Sowinski together with Eleanor Clayton, The Hepworth Wakefield’s Head of Collection and Exhibition explores the development of Moody’s art as well as his contribution and impact on British and international art history. The exhibition brings together over 50 Moody works from large-scale figurative sculptures made in wood in the 1930s through to post-war experimentation with concrete and resin casting.
An Awkward Relation is a new exhibition from artist and educator Sonia Boyce (b.1962, London, UK). It has been specially conceived to be in dialogue with the exhibition of Brazilian artist Lygia Clark, The I and the You, which is showing concurrently at the Gallery. Boyce was introduced to Clark’s work in the 1990s and felt a strong synergy with the Brazilian artist’s experiential and participatory practice. An Awkward Relation brings together a number of pivotal and rarely-seen works to explore themes of interaction, participation and improvisation – all of which have played a definitive role in Boyce’s practice since the 1990s and reflect a shared interest with many of the radical approaches that Lygia Clark pioneered in her work.
Wiley is known for his vibrant and highly naturalistic paintings of contemporary African American and African Diasporic men and women, reconstructing hierarchies and conventions of classical portraiture. Marking a new direction in his practice, the artist has created two multi-part paintings for the exhibition alongside a series of 60 paintings inspired by historic miniature portraits that first appeared in European royal courts in the sixteenth century. The exhibition takes its cues from scale and the way it is used as a force within the medium of painting. Whether it be the imposing compositions of early religious and historic painters like Michelangelo and Jacques Louis David or the “performative” oversized creations of abstract expressionists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko, Wiley considers the way scale is deployed in art to demonstrate dominance and reinforce ideas of power.
Tales From The Caves, 3rd October 2024 – 9th March 2025, 12 pm - 4 pm, Lakeside Arts, University Park, Nottingham, NG7 2RD
Delve beneath the surface and discover the many-layered history of Nottingham's famous caves and the people who have carved out a life within their walls for over a thousand years. From medieval tanneries and breweries to the overcrowded slums and makeshift air-raid shelters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, local people have sought everything from refuge to recreation below ground, leaving behind traces of their lives that survive in the University of Nottingham’s collections. These stories, whether legends of Robin Hood or adventures of latter-day urban explorers, are now brought together for the first time.
Flicker - Will Gabaldón, 4th October – 9th November, Union Pacific, 15 West Central St, London, WC1A 1JJ
Will Gabaldón’s (b. 1978 Belen, New Mexico, lives and works in Chicago) paintings depict specific pastoral landscapes and environments the artist has observed over time and rendered from memory. Through painterly intervention, Gabaldón’s verdant scenes are simultaneously representations of real places and manifestations of what the artist refers to as "atmospheres left in memory." The work conjures images of places both real and imagined, utilizing concise brushwork, humble palettes, and the artist's keen sense of memory. Bold brushwork is a significant element of Gabaldón’s remembered and invented landscapes. Described as the "rhythm of brushstrokes" in the artist's words, they lead the eyes to sway back and forth across the surface, creating a sense of movement and energy in the silent scenes.
Frank Auerbach: Portraits Of London, 4th October - 7th December, Offer Waterman & Francis Outred, 17 St George St, London, W1S 1FJ
Offer Waterman / Francis Outred are pleased to present Frank Auerbach: Portraits of London, the first survey dedicated to the artist’s London landscapes which will unite a carefully selected group of paintings from his seven-decade career. The paintings will trace the evolution of London as it recovers from war, regenerates and flourishes into a major metropolis at the turn of the 21st century. It will explore the urban bustle of Oxford Street, St Pancras and Euston to the sweeping panoramas of Primrose Hill, Hampstead Heath and Regent’s Park; as well as the familiar neighbourhood motifs in the vicinity of the artist’s studio around Mornington Crescent and Camden Town. The notion of the city evolving over the decades is mirrored by a parallel shift in colour, texture and form within Auerbach’s painting as he observes the changing city.
Being Here presents over 70 extraordinary artworks, including rarely seen paintings, her Turner Prize nominated drawing series Burden of Proof (2022-23), and a newly commissioned printed wallpaper Soft Power (2024). For over twenty-five years, Walker has been making intensely observed and empathetic figurative work that creates space for Black presence, power and belonging. Ranging from delicate graphite drawings on archival documents to a monumental charcoal wall drawing, Walker tackles wide-ranging themes such as the policing and surveillance of Black life, twentieth-century war histories, immigration and Old Master paintings to challenge conventions of representation and the histories they are rooted in.
Outlaws: Fashion Renegades of 80s London exhibition centres around the legendary nightclub Taboo, opened by designer and performance artist Leigh Bowery in 1985. Imposing ‘dress as though your life depends on it, or don’t bother’ as the dress code, the Taboo circle – which included fashion designers BodyMap, Rachel Auburn, John Crancher and Pam Hogg, dancer Michael Clark and pop star Boy George – sparked a scene that used the language of hedonistic excess to create fashion, art and popular culture. Displaying original garments and accessories from Leigh Bowery and over thirty designers, including custom-made pieces from private collections and rare pieces from designers such as John Galliano, John Flett, Stephen Linard and Dean Bright amongst others, plus photography, film and artworks, the exhibition focuses on this vibrant alternative arena where the anarchic energy of the night spilt over into experimental creativity by day.
Featuring artwork by over 30 Indian artists, this major exhibition is bookended by two transformative events in India’s history: Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of emergency in 1975 and the Pokhran nuclear tests in 1998. The fraught period between these years was marked by social upheaval, economic collapse, and rapid urbanisation. Within this turbulence, ordinary life continued, and artists made work that distilled historically significant episodes as well as intimate moments and shared experiences. Across a range of media, the vivid, urgent works on show – about friendship, love, desire, family, religion, violence, caste, community, protest – are deeply personal documents from a period of tremendous change.
Frieze London is one of the world’s most influential contemporary art fairs, focusing only on contemporary art and living artists, and takes place each October in The Regent’s Park, in the heart of London. The 2024 edition will feature a ground-breaking new floorplan by design practice A Studio Between. The reconfigured layout and entrance give greater prominence to the fair’s curated sections, including Artist-to-Artist and this year’s new themed section, Smoke.
Frieze Masters offers a unique contemporary perspective on thousands of years of art history, from collectable objects to significant masterpieces from the ancient era and Old Masters to the late 20th century. The 2024 edition of the fair will showcase over 130 of the most significant galleries from around the world.
Peter Lloyd-Jones is gearing up for his delightful upcoming exhibition, "ROUND TABLE", at Apelles Fine Art in the heart of London. From October 9 to 25, 2024, it promises to be a charming showcase of his colourful and inviting still-life paintings. Expect a collection of wonderfully vibrant works like Moroccan Pot (2023) and Yellow Chairs and Wemyss Pot (2022-2024), all bursting with character and warmth!
Known for transforming everyday objects into engaging visual stories, Peter Lloyd-Jones adds a touch of magic to the ordinary. His attention to detail and playful compositions are sure to captivate art lovers.
The Mayor Gallery, in admirative acknowledgement of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Surrealism (and the Surrealist Movement), will present a comprehensive exhibition entitled Homage to Surrealism: 1924 – Forever (All Media). This exhibition will put on display works covering almost every aspect of Surrealist creativity and adventure, culled from the combined worlds of art, writing (poetry and prose, political and cultural manifestoes, etc.), and ephemeral material of every sort. This exhibition is co-curated by the veteran expert of Surrealism from America, Timothy Baum.
Presenting a series of her unique sculptural clay vessels, this will be Odundo’s first solo exhibition in London in over two decades. Known for her refined forms and profound understanding of clay’s universal capacity for material storytelling, Odundo draws influence from a broad compass of historical and contemporary making practices. Her work embodies her research into traditional techniques and vernacular ceramic traditions across the world, exploring diasporic identity and recognising the power of objects as repositories of intercultural meaning. Odundo’s vessels are informed by references as diverse as British studio pottery, ancient ceramics, traditional ceremonial vessels from Kenya and Nigeria, and modernist sculpture.
Featuring more than 55 works from the 1950s onwards, this exhibition will explore Francis Bacon’s deep connection to portraiture and how he challenged traditional definitions of the genre. From his responses to portraiture by earlier artists, to large-scale paintings memorialising lost lovers, works from private and public collections will showcase Bacon’s life story. Accompanied by the artist’s self-portraits, sitters include Lucian Freud, Isabel Rawsthorne and lovers Peter Lacy and George Dyer.
Find out what lies behind the making of 'The Hay Wain' and its iconic status in British art. Through paintings including George Morland’s building storm and the atmospheric light of William Mulready’s farrier shop, they look at how Constable’s contemporaries created rural scenes. William Blake’s mystic works take them into the realm of the spiritual landscape while they experience the poetic and political landscape through contemporary poetry and prints. They bring together sketches of the scene the artist made over twenty years before producing the finished work in his London studio.
This major new exhibition brings together three artists who, although working more than 200 years apart, are connected through their close observation of nature and skilful use of materials. Watercolours, paintings and prints by the much-loved JMW Turner (1775-1851), from The Box’s art collection and on loan from Tate, depict waves, wind, clouds and skies, showing how he captured the essence of both land and sea before the invention of photography. Three Drops of Blood, a recent body of work by Pollard (b.1953) who is a multi-media artist and photographer, draws on two years of research that unearthed the folk histories of Devon’s botanical gardens and ferns.
What have we here? Join renowned Guyanese-British artist Hew Locke as he turns his lens on the British Museum collection in a collaborative exhibition exploring histories of British imperial power. In this groundbreaking new show, Locke (born 1959) explores, questions and challenges narratives of British imperialism through objects from the British Museum collection, alongside specially commissioned new works. Offering a fresh perspective on the British Museum's history and collection, which are closely tied to those of the British empire, Locke explores the messy and complex ways museums are implicated in these histories.
This display features a selection of photographs by the Ukrainian artist Yevheniia Laptii (b. 1992, Kharkiv), all showing the village of Cherkaski Tyshky, near Kharkiv. This is the second part of the first project of A G E N D A, a new series of artist projects that respond to global events and address pressing issues our their time. The series aims to show how art can offer insight and understanding beyond the 24-hour news cycle.
Conversations, 19th Oct - 9th March 2025, National Museums Liverpool, Walker Art Gallery, William Brown St , Liverpool, L3 8EL
This ambitious exhibition brings together work by nearly 40 leading Black women and non-binary artists who are transforming contemporary British art today. The exhibition will ask poignant questions about the present and aims to provide a moment of celebration and joy centred around artists working in the UK. Conversations will include paintings, sculpture and video from the last ten years, with many works selected for display by the artist themselves.
Emblems, Partnership Editions, 23rd - 27th October, Lant Street Wine, 59-61 Lant Street Wine, SE1 1QN
With all three artists working across painting and sculpture, Emblems considers the experience of
meaning and memory through objects. Gesturing towards art historical archetypes of still life and
tableau, these works bring together ideas of domesticity, ephemerality, and theatricality. Spaces of the domestic are woven into symbolic sites of imagination. Artists include Eryn Lougheed, Lily Snowden-Fine and Sophie Glover.
Dora Carrington: Beyond Bloomsbury, 9th November - 27th April 2025, Pallant House Gallery, 8-9 North Pallant, Chichester, PO19 1TJ
Dive into the life and work of Dora Carrington – a remarkable artist who defied social norms with her bohemian lifestyle. This will be the first museum exhibition of works by Dora Carrington (1893-1932) in almost 30 years. The Barbican Art Gallery held the last major exhibition of her work in 1995 and in the same year Emma Thompson starred as the free-spirited painter in the film Carrington. Co-curated by Anne Chisholm, editor of Carrington’s Letters (2017) and Ariane Bankes, the exhibition will reveal the continued relevance of Carrington’s unconventional life and remarkable work. As a significant contributor to Modern British art during the interwar years and an associate of the Bloomsbury Group, Carrington was described as ‘the most neglected serious painter of her time’ by former Tate Director, Sir John Rothenstein. This exhibition aims to reposition Carrington in the history of Modern British art.
Spanning paintings, drawings and prints from across her career, the exhibition will include film and photographs from private and public collections. It will form a powerful portrait of Carrington, exploring her defiance of gender norms and her circle of eminent friends. Taken together, her artworks, many made for her friends, capture a Bohemian way of life: loving, creative, domestic and intimate.
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