Latest news with #exhibitions
Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Times
The best exhibitions in London and the UK to book for June 2025
Below is a round-up of the best art our critics have seen in recent months across the UK. From Renaissance chalk sketches to rotting apples, miniatures and Picasso prints, it's a varied list. Which exhibitions have you enjoyed recently? Let us know in the comments. Resistance — Steve McQueen leads us on a voyage of discovery Turner Contemporary, Margate From the militant suffrage movement in 1903 to the anti-Iraq war protests in 2003, when it matters, we march. This Turner Contemporary exhibition, Resistance: How Protest Shaped Britain and Photography Shaped Protest, curated by the artist and film director Steve McQueen, is a fascinating, deeply researched, if low-key look at a century of protest in Britain through photography. To Jun 1, ND Read our review Edvard Munch Portraits — the Scream painter shows his social side National Portrait Gallery, London Edvard Munch's forensic powers are on full display in the first British exhibition to focus solely on his portraits. Known for his 'subject' paintings, which cast friends and family as the dramatis personae in tableaux that communicate a universal emotion (The Scream being the most famous), he was also a prolific portraitist. To Jun 15, ND Anselm Kiefer: Early Works — an artist under the shadow of the Nazis Ashmolean, Oxford It's one hell of a moment for an exhibition of the early works of Anselm Kiefer. It was probably conceived as celebratory — the German artist's 80th birthday lands on March 8; this show at the Ashmolean opens just before an unprecedented presentation across two Amsterdam museums, the Van Gogh and the Stedelijk. But with the rise of the AfD in Germany, and a shift to the right across Europe, a return to these works, created between 1969 and 1982, has suddenly become urgent. To Jun 15, ND COURTESY NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART, WASHINGTON Siena: The Rise of Painting 1300-1350 — an unmissable National Gallery hit National Gallery The show focuses on four painters — Duccio, Simone Martini and the brothers Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti — to reveal them as pioneers, and uses textiles and finely wrought items such as carved ivories and richly decorated reliquaries to show how these four artists were nurtured by this European centre for trade. It is a stunner. London, to Jun 22, ND Andy Warhol: Portrait of America — depicting a dark side to the USA MK Gallery, Milton Keynes This exhibition at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes, put together from the Artist Rooms collection, goes back to basics in an elegant primer showing how Andy Warhol — uniquely and incisively — held up a mirror to postwar consumerist America. It takes a chronological, rather than thematic, approach. Each room represents a decade, from his days as a commercial artist in the 1950s to the 1980s (he died in 1987). To Jun 29, ND Victor Hugo's The Cheerful Castle, 1847, on show at the Royal Academy PARIS MUSÉES/MAISONS DE VICTOR HUGO PARIS-GUERNESEY Astonishing Things: Drawings of Victor Hugo — strange and marvellous Royal Academy, London Though many of us won't actually have read either of the 19th-century writer Victor Hugo's most famous novels (Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame), there's a chance that we've all seen at least one of them, either on film or on stage. Very few will be familiar with the body of work now on display — his strange and marvellous drawings. To Jun 29, ND Read our review Bob Dylan — the musician is a good painter Halcyon Gallery, London There will be people who pooh-pooh yet another exhibition of paintings by Bob Dylan as just another rock star's dabblings. But over the past 20 years (he started exhibiting in 2007 at the Chemnitz art museum in Germany) he has developed into a rather good, interesting painter. To Jul 6, ND Leigh Bowery! at Tate Modern is a fascinating homage to an Eighties icon Tate Modern, London Through artworks by his friends and peers (including portraits by Lucian Freud), garments (or 'Looks') from his archive, films, postcards, sketches, letters, magazines and what feels like hundreds of photographs, we follow the journey of a suburban Melbourne lad. It's a story that runs from his arrival in London in 1980, fresh out of fashion college, through his entry to the scene, his impact on clubland, his work with the choreographer Michael Clark and his shift into performance. To Aug 31, ND Hiroshige — an entrancing trip to 19th-century Japan British Museum, London Utagawa Hiroshige is among the very most popular — not to mention prolific — artists in Japan. Yet to many of us he may be familiar only through the work of his most famous fan in the West. Vincent van Gogh was a passionate admirer, which is why some of the images that now go on display at the British Museum may start ringing bells. To Sep 7, Rachel Campbell-Johnston Giuseppe Penone — breathe in the scent of nature Serpentine Gallery, London The idea of breath as sculpture has always interested Penone, and though he's never quite managed to make that work, he symbolises it here with a set of lungs formed from golden branches. Not every work here speaks clearly, but something about the show as a whole evokes an inexplicable wish to linger, basking in the restfulness that permeates the galleries. And then you realise that, just beyond the doors, there's a whole 275 acres of nature. Time to get into it. To Sep 7, ND Read our review Do Ho Suh — an exquisite meditation on the perfect home Tate Modern, London At Tate Modern, the great Korean artist Do Ho Suh has fashioned hundreds from colour-coded fabric according to the places he's inhabited, and installed them on four transparent panels modelled on his present London abode. The effect is at once playful and haunting, a ghostly meeting of places and time zones that poses questions about the meaning of home. To Oct 19, Chloe Ashby Read our review Ancient India: Living Traditions — gods and rituals come to life British Museum, London Considering the sheer size of the country, you might expect an exhibition entitled Ancient India: Living Traditions to be a sprawling mess. However, it's surprisingly compact, perhaps because if they were to go big, we'd have to go home well before we got to the end. May 22 to Oct 19, Nancy Durrant Grayson Perry: Delusions of Grandeur — a mischievous romp Wallace Collection, London Grayson Perry does not love the Wallace Collection. The decadence, the grandeur, the conspicuous expense trigger his snobbery. It was a sticking point when he was invited to create an exhibition of new work responding to the collection. So Perry conjured someone to love the Wallace for him: Shirley Smith, a fictional artist, inspired by Madge Gill, a real 'outsider artist'' who exhibited at the Wallace during the Second World War — a woman who suffered traumatic events but found solace (and acclaim) through art. To Oct 26, ND Read our review Liliane Lijn — first major show for the 85-year-old Tate St Ives Now 85, and having lived in London since 1966, it seems bizarre that Liliane Lijn's Arise Alive exhibition at Tate St Ives is the New York-born artist's first major solo survey show in a UK museum. It's not as if she's an unknown. In the late 1950s she knocked about with ageing surrealists Max Ernst and André Breton in Paris, a rare, prominent and much younger woman in that rather bitchy scene (some of her intricate, dreamy Sky Scrolls drawings from this period indicate a fascination with that surrealist staple, the unconscious). Right now, one of her kinetic pieces has its own room in the Electric Dreams exhibition at Tate Modern. This, though, is all her. To Nov 2, ND Seeing Each Other — Freud, Bacon, Emin and Kahlo all join the party Pallant House, Chichester Looking is what artists do. But at what? At each other, endlessly, on the evidence of this new exhibition at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, which looks back over 125 years at the ways that artists working in Britain have portrayed each other. To Nov 2, Nancy Durrant Read our review JMW Turner's Upnor Castle, Kent,1831-2 THE WHITWORTH, THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER Turner: In Light and Shade — a gorgeous display of astonishing scenes Whitworth, Manchester John Ruskin was a funny old stick, but when it came to his hero JMW Turner, whose 250th birthday falls this year, he really knew what he was talking about. 'He paints in colour, but he thinks in light and shade,' he wrote in 1843, and in this exhibition at the Whitworth in Manchester, which focuses on Turner's prints — in particular the Liber Studiorum series, which, despite the gallery's significant Turner holdings, hasn't been shown here in full since 1922 — this is borne out gloriously. To Nov 2, ND Read our review Making Egypt — much more than mummies Young V&A, London For its older or younger visitors, the V&A's remit is not simply the history of the past but also its interaction with the design of the present. So in Making Egypt, alongside old fabrics are new dresses; alongside ancient stone carvings are modern ones made with the same techniques. As much space is given for the practice sketches of an ancient scribe — working out how to depict owls and cats and hieroglyphs — as for the finished result. To Nov 2, Tom Whipple Read our review Cartier — dazzled by diamonds in a five-star show V&A, London Curators have kept it simple for this dazzling show, just a lot of exquisite objects of outstanding beauty, quality and ingenuity alongside occasional drawings from the Cartier archives to illustrate their development, all mostly spotlit against black. To Nov 12, ND Pirates — the bloody truth behind Captain Pugwash
South China Morning Post
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
New BBC show Walking with Dinosaurs has ‘character-led stories based on genuine evidence'
Make no bones about it: dinosaurs are a perennial big deal. As passionate palaeontologist Dr Nizar Ibrahim puts it: 'When museums are talking about bringing in exhibitions, they say the two themes that always work are mummies and dinosaurs!' And dinosaurs' outsize appeal extends to television. In 1999, the BBC unleashed what it calls 'one of [its] most beloved factual shows', Walking with Dinosaurs. Now, after a surprisingly long interlude, comes Walking with Dinosaurs: Legends Unearthed, a six-part continuation and a celebration of animals that were always much more than the sum of their movie counterparts. Play For this is a series that isn't afraid to show the cuddly side of the 'terrible lizards' – even, perhaps, with a touch of unashamed anthropomorphism, giving the beasts' names and imagined family lives.
Arab News
22-05-2025
- Business
- Arab News
Saudi Arabia and Kuwait strengthen museum relations
RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian Museums Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tareq Rajab Museum in Kuwait on Wednesday. The agreement aims to strengthen cultural cooperation and the exchange of expertise in the fields of museums and exhibitions. It aims to strengthen the broader cultural relations between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, helping to promote mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue between the two countries. Mona Khazindar, adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Culture and representative of the Museums Commission, signed the memorandum alongside Ziad Tareq Rajab, director of the Tareq Rajab Museum. The document outlines areas of cultural cooperation and mutual interest for both parties. Key areas of cooperation include the exchange of research, the loan of objects and the organization of temporary exhibitions, with the aim of enriching the cultural content and enhancing the value of both collections. The memorandum also establishes a joint working group to implement these areas of cooperation and facilitate the exchange of knowledge. Khazindar said that the memorandum reflected the Museums Commission's commitment to forming strategic partnerships with long-established private museums in the Arab region. She underlined the importance of the Tareq Rajab Museum as a leading institution dedicated to Islamic art and heritage, adding that the collaboration would support cultural and knowledge-exchange initiatives across the museum sector.
New York Times
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Candida Alvarez's Full Life in Living Color
'Throughout my life, windows have given me the opportunity to reflect,' said the artist Candida Alvarez, who is featured in two big New York exhibitions that together show more than 100 of her vibrant works, many of them spirited abstractions. 'Windows offer the freedom to imagine, or to just be quiet and not have to explain yourself to anybody.' On a chilly spring afternoon, Alvarez stood looking out the picture windows that open onto three acres of Michigan woods behind her studio. The forested area was a big draw for her when, at the height of the pandemic, she moved east from Chicago and purchased the property in southwest Michigan. Alvarez's windows framed the first signs of the season — red-winged blackbirds flashing through the trees, fresh hoofprints from white-tailed deer. The slow transformation from muted gray to verdant green is one she anticipates each year. Soon, fast-growing vines of hops begin their dramatic climb up a neighbor's tall trellis, visible from Alvarez's easel. Cycles are on her mind. At 70, Alvarez's five-decade career is in full bloom this month. 'Circle, Point, Hoop,' a sweeping museum survey at El Museo del Barrio, features 102 paintings, drawings and sculptures. 'Real Monsters in Bold Colors,' a dual show at Gray New York, joins Alvarez's work with that of the celebrated painter Bob Thompson, who died in 1966. Both shows highlight her singular ability to unspool memory, migration and material. Over her career, Alvarez has developed a richly personal language that the impressive agglomeration of her work connects and reveals. The exhibitions also mark a cycling back to Alvarez's hometown. Born in Brooklyn, she took a path toward an art career that was shaped in her 20s by studio instruction at El Museo, which in the late 1970s was a new and lively cultural institution for Latin American artists. After more than two decades teaching at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, raising her son with her former husband, the photographer Dawoud Bey, and mentoring a generation of artists, including Rashid Johnson (who debuted his own midcareer survey at the Guggenheim recently), Alvarez sees the moment as more than recognition. 'It's its own kind of loop,' she said. Alvarez, whose parents moved to New York from Puerto Rico, identifies as 'Diasporican,' a term that reflects her Puerto Rican roots and upbringing in the diaspora. She grew up in the Farragut Houses, a sprawling, but isolated public housing complex. From the windows of her family's 14th-floor apartment, Alvarez was transfixed by the view of cars threading along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the glint of the Manhattan Bridge. The view offered an early education in light and motion. So did the stained glass in St. Ann Catholic Church, where she and her family attended mass every Sunday. 'I was mesmerized by the beauty of it,' she recalled. 'The detail, the gold, the garments, the light coming through those windows. That's where my eyes would go. The rainbow colors.' She still sees clearly the black of her patent leather tap shoes, the emerald green of her winter coat, the yellow ochre of one of her first purses. That relationship to memory and color mark Alvarez's El Museo retrospective. The show opens with 'Soy (I Am) Boricua,' a gallery that features some of her earliest work, as she begins to find her place as a Puerto Rican artist with a vocabulary both figurative and abstract. The painting 'She Went Round and Round' (1983—84) depicts a scene in her childhood apartment. A girl spins with abandon, in the way children do to make themselves dizzy. Alvarez paints the girl's arms blurred like frames from an Eadweard Muybridge motion study. The layered but muted colors express the fog of dizziness that can transform a modest family living room into a dreamlike space. In 'Bolero' (1984), two colorful figures embrace tenderly, cheek-to-cheek, in the traditional Latin-Caribbean slow dance against an otherwise muted room. 'Dancing felt like entering another world,' Alvarez said. 'It was a way to translate with your body, to connect to sound, to history, to something really old and passed down. You're sweating, you're twirling, you forget everything. Music is that fluid space — part memory, part reinvention.' 'Sunny' (2023), a collection of 10 framed works in paint and pencil, is, by contrast, Alvarez's contemplation of stillness. The artist says the set was inspired by Raphael's 1514 painting 'Madonna of the Chair,' an image she first saw reproduced in her mother's bible. 'I've been looking at that image since I was a little kid,' she said. 'At first, you don't really see the chair, but then you keep looking and see the Madonna, the three kids, and then slowly you see this beautiful wooden structure.' It's a kind of puzzle, and in Alvarez's versions, the colors piece together in ways that slowly unfold to the viewer. For the 'Sunny' paintings, Alvarez also found inspiration in a series of family portraits taken over the lifetime of her nonagenarian mother. In all of them, her mother sits in a chair, which, in Alvarez's artistic imagination, conjured her mother in place of the Madonna. 'Candida is able to find the bigger ideas in things that are small and quotidian,' said Marcela Guerrero, a curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, who included Alvarez in the 2022 exhibition that focused on the art of the Puerto Rican diaspora after Hurricane Maria. Guerrero also added an Alvarez painting to the Whitney's collection. 'There's a liveliness and rhythm in her paintings, and they don't take themselves too seriously.' Alvarez imbues energy in her work by going big. Her most striking works in the two shows stand over six feet tall. She was awakened to the power of size from the New York abstract painter Jack Whitten, with whom she studied as an undergraduate at Fordham University. Alvarez says Whitten — now the subject of a celebrated retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art — saw her early drawings and urged her to think bigger. 'He said, 'Candida, if you make your paintings bigger, you could win scholarships. He was right. I've been working big ever since.' Komal Shah, a prominent collector and champion of women in abstraction, sees scale as one of Alvarez's powerful tools. 'I am always drawn to women who can conquer scale with precision,' said Shah, who added Alvarez's 2009 painting 'Black Cherry Pit' to her collection in 2024 and lent it to El Museo for the show. 'There's an amplified power in Candida's work — but there's a lot of joy in them as well.' When intimacy is the point, she keeps the canvas small. In her series 'dinner napkin,' several pieces of which hang in the show at El Museo, Alvarez alternately embroidered images of a toy elephant, a children's rhyme in Spanish, or her son's toy boat — all fragments of her own personal history captured on soft, transportable squares. Back in her Michigan studio, Alvarez has created a map of references: color swatches, family photos, an old projector and handwritten notes. One note reads 'sunshine and nice' in all caps. Beside it, she's taped a small image of a painting by Bob Thompson, who reimagined old master compositions through kaleidoscopic palettes and silhouetted figures. Thompson's work was an early influence on Alvarez — not just for his use of color, but for his refusal to accept the limits of tradition. 'Thompson's work is my liberation,' she said. 'Why not a pink, red or brown body frolicking under a tree?' For their dual show at Gray, Alvarez created six paintings that echo Thompson's saturated hues and mythic scenes, but in her visual language, featuring interlocking hues, silhouettes and improvisational strokes. Returning to the work of Thompson, Alvarez said, is a poignant point in the arc of her career. The two exhibitions add to the current constellation of shows by Black abstract and conceptual artists in Alvarez's orbit — some who have influenced her and others who have been inspired by her. 'You get older, you can kind of start to see the circles,' she says. 'Another completion, another circle. It's a gift to be able to see that and to remember it.' Through Aug. 3, El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue, Upper Manhattan; 212-660-7102; Real Monsters in Bold Colors: Bob Thompson and Candida Alvarez Through July 3, Gray New York, 1018 Madison Avenue, Floor 2; 212-472 -8787;
Travel Daily News
22-05-2025
- Business
- Travel Daily News
Leading organisers unite to celebrate Global Exhibitions Day
Tenth edition of Global Exhibitions Day highlights the role of exhibitions in unleashing potential across all industries for all people. Leading exhibition organisers emphasise the importance of face-to-face connections and multi-industry growth. PARIS – The world's top exhibition organisers – Clarion Events, Comexposium, Emerald, Informa, and RX – join forces on Wednesday 4 June 2025 to celebrate the tenth edition of Global Exhibitions Day (GED). Under the theme 'Exhibitions Unleash Potential,' this milestone event underscores the invaluable role of exhibitions in driving multi-industry growth through in-person engagement. Exhibitions provide vital platforms for industries to connect, innovate, and develop. As businesses and communities navigate an evolving global landscape, the exhibition industry remains a vital catalyst for growth, enabling face-to-face engagement that accelerates opportunity and progress. The GED 2025 theme reflects the industry's unwavering commitment to unlocking potential across all sectors for all people. Uniting industries and empowring people through exhibitions As key stakeholders in the global exhibition ecosystem, Clarion Events, Comexposium, Emerald, Informa, and RX recognise the transformative impact of exhibitions. This year's GED theme highlights two fundamental ways exhibitions unleash potential: Empowering People Through Connection: At the heart of exhibitions lies the power of human interaction. In an increasingly digital world, the ability to meet face-to-face, exchange ideas, and forge meaningful relationships remains irreplaceable. Exhibitions create valuable opportunities for individuals to grow and succeed. By facilitating real, in-person connections, exhibitions foster trust, strengthen business resilience, and create dynamic, sustainable industry ecosystems. Fueling Multi-Industry Growth: Exhibitions are dynamic marketplaces where businesses across diverse sectors connect and collaborate to drive economic expansion. They serve as powerful bridges to international markets, helping companies navigate regulatory complexities and geopolitical challenges through direct engagement. Exhibitions also showcase industry excellence, elevating the global reputation and standing of host cities and countries while fostering sustainable, long-term economic growth. 'Exhibitions unlock potential by bringing industries, individuals, communities, and companies together driving real, lasting impact. Our industry has always been a force for collaboration and innovation, helping businesses and people grow, transform, and thrive. Exhibitions serve as powerful economic engines, accelerating progress, fostering development, and shaping the future of industries. Most importantly, they create invaluable face-to-face connections that amplify reach, strengthen brands, and propel businesses forward. At Clarion Events, we are proud to champion the exhibition industry and the extraordinary opportunities it creates worldwide.' says Lisa Hannant, CEO, Clarion Events. Renaud Hamaide, CEO, Comexposium, says, 'At Comexposium, we believe exhibitions reveal the best of what industries and people have to offer. Through networks such as SIAL and Vinexposium, we bring together with our teams and stakeholders communities to foster innovation, grow talent, and generate lasting impact. This global exhibitions day is a timely reminder of the power of face-to-face experiences to shape tomorrow's economy and society.' 'Exhibitions are more than gatherings – they are a driving force for business growth, bringing people together to spark ideas, build partnerships, and drive impact. Our in-person event ecosystem is a highly effective platform connecting buyers and sellers, fueling inspiration, discovery, and commerce beyond the show floor. By enabling face-to-face engagement, exhibitions grow the economy, create jobs, and empowers businesses to compete. Now more than ever, we must champion the essential role of in-person events in helping businesses connect, thrive, and deliver real ROI,' says Hervé Sedky, President & CEO, Emerald. 'Trade shows shape tomorrow's commercial landscape, creating platforms for communities to explore products, forge partnerships, and stay ahead in an ever-evolving world. The unique value of in-person events lies in their ability to bring communities together face-to-face to see, touch and test products, spark innovation, create and nurture lasting relationships, and unlock valuable opportunities to accelerate global trade.' – Patrick Martell, CEO, Informa Markets & COO, Informa Plc. 'As we celebrate the tenth Global Exhibitions Day, we're reminded of the incredible power of face-to-face connection in a world increasingly driven by digital. Exhibitions don't just bring people together – they unlock opportunity, fuel growth, create lasting value, and build trust across borders and industries. At RX, and through my role this year as President of UFI, we are proud to champion the vital role exhibitions play in driving progress and delivering tangible impact for people, businesses, and communities around the world. Together with our industry peers, we continue to shape a future where exhibitions remain a powerful force for positive change.' comments Hugh Jones, CEO, RX and President, UFI. 'Global Exhibitions Day is an opportunity to recognise the collective strength of our industry – organisers, venues, associations and partners – who work throughout the year to connect people and enable progress. This tenth edition is not only a celebration, but also a testament to the vital role exhibitions play in supporting dialogue, innovation and sustainable economic growth around the world. At UFI, we are proud to support this global community and the positive impact it delivers every day.' said Chris Skeith OBE, CEO & Managing Director, UFI. As the industry commemorates a decade of Global Exhibitions Day, we invite stakeholders to join in on 4 June 2025 to recognise the limitless potential that exhibitions unleash. Whether as organisers, exhibitors, attendees, or industry partners, we all play a role in shaping a future where exhibitions continue to drive progress.
