This summer is set to host a wave of exciting exhibitions and events across the globe, all worth travelling for. From city wide celebrations of a Spanish master to renowned annual events and all immersive exhibitions, we’re looking forward to seeing how many we can tick off our list.
The Royal Academy's 'Summer Exhibition 2023’
Main Galleries | Burlington House
When: 13 June - 20 August 2023
Running without interruption since 1769, the Summer Exhibition; the Royal Academy’s annual celebration of art and artists is here once more. And we can’t wait. Among the 1,614 featured works you will find witty and thought provoking paintings, sculptures and just about everything in between. Plus pieces by Tracey Emin RA, Gavin Turk, Lindsey Mendick to name a few, we thoroughly recommend a day at the RA. With most of the artwork available to buy, finding your favourite could even mean taking it home!
Find out more here.
‘Marina Abramović’
Royal Academy, London
When: 23 Sept-10 Dec 2023
For a strikingly different and transformative experience, we’ll be back at the Royal Academy at the end of the summer for Marina Abramović’s all immersive retrospective. “An art world icon and a performance art pioneer – for the past 50 years Marina Abramović has captivated audiences by pushing the limits of her body and mind. This major exhibition presents key moments from Abramović’s career through sculpture, video, installation and performance. Works such as The Artist is Present will be strikingly re-staged through archive footage while others will be reperformed by the next generation of performance artists, trained in the Marina Abramović method.” - royal academy.org.uk
Find out more here.
‘Celebrating Picasso’
Various locations, Madrid, Spain
When: 2023
Madrid is the place to be for any Picasso fan this year. Marking the 50th anniversary since his death, Madrid is set to host many of the exhibitions and activities featured in a programme put together by the French and Spanish governments to honour the occasion.
Find out more here.
‘Georgia O’Keeffe To See Takes Time’
MOMA, New York
When: Until 31 October 2023
“‘To see takes time,’ Georgia O’Keeffe once wrote. Best known for her flower paintings, O’Keeffe (1887–1986) also made extraordinary series of works in charcoal, pencil, watercolor, and pastel. Reuniting works on paper that are often seen individually, along with key paintings, this exhibition offers a rare glimpse of the artist’s working methods and invites us to take time to look and take time to see.” - mama.org
Find out more here.
‘Lindsey Mendick: Where The Bodies Are Buried’
Yorkshire Sculpture Park
When: Until 3 September 2023
If you’re looking for something out of the ordinary while in the Dales, Lindsey Mendick’s latest exhibition is one not to be missed. Get lost in her curious universe…
“The spontaneous creativity of this artist knows no bounds. She throws bizarre, sensuous and hilarious ceramics by the kiln load at her studio in Margate. This show is guaranteed to be a carnival of satire, outrage and welcome silliness, appropriately opening on April Fool’s day. Welcome to the feast of fools!” Find out more here.
‘Museum of Homelessness’
Finsbury Park, London
For a grounding reality check, this museum will change perceptions of homelessness for anyone who cares to visit…“Billed as “a museum space like no other”, the Museum of Homelessness creates unforgettable, high quality artistic events, exhibitions and content with the aim of changing perceptions of homelessness. This venue is a hub for advice on housing and legal rights, with an open-access arts studio for people experiencing homelessness. Based in a former gatekeeper’s house in Finsbury Park, it will also house the national archive and collection for homelessness, poverty and social action, drawing on the park’s radical roots.” - museumofhomelessness.org
Find out more here.
‘When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting’
Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town
When: November 20 2022 - September 3 2023
Such a collection of works is not to be missed this year…
“With a focus on painting, this exhibition celebrates how artists from Africa and its diaspora have imagined, positioned, memorialised and asserted African and African-descent experiences. It contributes to critical discourse on African and Black liberation, intellectual and philosophical movements. The title of the exhibition is inspired by Ava DuVernay’s When They See Us, the 2019 miniseries. Flipping ‘they’ to ‘we’ allows for a dialectical shift that centres the conversation in a differential perspective of self-writing as theorised by Cameroonian political scientist Professor Achille Mbembe.” - zeitzmocaa.museum
Find out more here.
‘Chagall, Paris-New-York’
The Atelier des Lumières, Paris.
When: 17 February 2023 - 7 January 2024
The latest to receive the Atelier des Lumières all immersive digital experience is modern art mogul, Marc Chagall entitled "Chagall, Paris-New-York" throughout 2023.
Allow yourself to rediscover the works of this cosmopolitan artist, including The Blue House, Paris by the Window, The Wolf and the Stork and the ceiling of the Garnier Opera. Find out more here.
‘Inheritance'
Whitney Museum of Art, New York City.
When: June 28 - February 2024
Exploring the curious subject of legacy and inherited traits, ‘Inheritance’ traces the profound impact of legacy and the past across familial, historical, and aesthetic lines. “Featuring new acquisitions and rarely-seen works from the Whitney collection by forty-three leading artists, the exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, videos, photographs, and time-based media installations from the 1970s to today. This diverse array of works consider what has been passed on and how it may shift, change, or live again.” - whitney.org
Find out more here.