Summer Exhibition 2023, Royal Academy, until 20th August
Go and see our very own Daisy Jarrett’s beautiful work displayed at the Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition. Held every year since 1769, the Summer Exhibition at the Royal Academy is the world’s oldest open submission exhibition. Featuring over 1,600 works, the exhibition displays a variant of mediums and genres by both emerging and established artist, including towering sculptures by the late Phyllida Barlow RA, Richard Malone’s dramatic mobile installation in the Wohl Central Hall and new works by Tracey Emin and Caroline Walker.
Carrie Mae Weems: Reflections for Now, Barbican, until 3rd September
This is the first major UK exhibition dedicated to Carrie Mae Weems, one of the most influential American artists working today. Celebrated for her exploration of identity, power, desire and social justice through work that challenges representations of race, gender, and class, this presentation brings together three decades of the artist’s multi-disciplinary work, bringing together photographs, films and installations.
Yevonde: Life and Colour, National Portrait Gallery, until 15th October
Following a three-year closure and a £35.5 million redevelopment project, the National Portrait gallery has reopened with Yevonde: Life and Colour, an exploration of the life and career of Yevonde Middleton, the pioneering London photographer who spearheaded the use of colour photography in the 1930s. The exhibition features portraits and still-life works produced by the artist over a colourful sixty-year career, and draws on the archive of her work acquired by the Gallery in 2021.
To Bend The Ear of the Outer World: Conversations on contemporary abstract painting, Gagosian, until 26th August
Spanning both of the Gagosian galleries in Mayfair, at Grosvenor Hill and Davies Street, guest curator Gary Garrels brings together new and recent works by more than 40 international, multi-generational artists, displaying a single painting by each to showcase the significance of abstract painting today. Juxtaposing a diverse range of approaches to contemporary abstraction, the exhibition brings together works by three generations of artists, including some never before shown by Gagosian. Artists include: Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Cecily Brown, Wade Guyton, David Hammons, Julie Mehretu, Oscar Murillo, Albert Oehlen, Laura Owens and Mary Weatherford.
Isaac Julien: What Freedom Is To Me, Tate Britain, until 20th August
London-born artist Isaac Julien is renowned for breaking down the barriers between different artistic disciplines – film, dance, photography, music, theatre, painting, sculpture – and using them to construct his own visual narratives through his lyrical films and video art installations. Tate Britain presents a unique overview of Julien’s pioneering 40-year career, including his trailblazing early films and immersive videos of the early 1980s to the kaleidoscopic, sculptural multi-screen installations for which he is so renowned today.
