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Throw off your winter thermals and step into spring with a look at some of the must-see art exhibitions taking place at our museum and gallery partners across the UK. From Michelangelo to Monster Chetwynd, discover old masters and contemporary classics that are sure to excite and inspire your 2019.

Featured regions:

Channel Islands

England

England: London

England: Midlands and East

England: North

England: South

Northern Ireland

Scotland

Wales

 

Channel Islands

Guernsey

Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018 | Guernsey Museum

Until 17th March 2019

Award-winning photographs illustrate the abundance, majesty, and vulnerability of life on our planet.

 

England: London

Nude in the Bath (Nu dans la baignoire)

Nude in the Bath (Nu dans la baignoire) 1925

Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947)

Tate
 

Pierre Bonnard: The Colour of Memory | Tate Modern

Until 6th May 2019

The innovative and much-loved French painter in his first major UK exhibition in 20 years.

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Eine Kleine Nachtmusik 1943

Dorothea Tanning (1910–2012)

Tate
 

Dorothea Tanning | Tate Modern

Until 9th June

Enigmatic paintings and uncanny sculptures from an artist who pushed the bounds of surrealism.

 

Van Gogh and Britain | Tate Britain                            

From 27th March to 11th August 2019

Some of Van Gogh’s most famous works come together in an exhibition exploring how he was inspired by British culture.

 

Mimesis: African Soldier | Imperial War Museum London

Until 31 March 2019

A multi-screen installation by artist John Akomfrah, remembering the millions of African and colonial soldiers and labourers who served in the First World War.

 

Phyllida Barlow RA: cul-de-sac | Royal Academy of Arts

Until 23rd June 2019

Altering perceptions with site-specific sculptural installations made from recycled materials.

 

Harald Sohlberg: Painting Norway | Dulwich Picture Gallery

Until 2nd June 2019

A major retrospective of the Norwegian landscape painter, showcasing the haunting and mysterious visions of his homeland.

 

Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams | Victoria and Albert Museum

Until 14th July 2019

Focussing on the fashion and impact of one of the twentieth century's greatest couturiers.

 

Bill Viola / Michelangelo | Royal Academy of Arts

Until 31st March 2019

Two artists separated by centuries explore themes of beauty and emotion throughout the cycle of life.

Venus Rising from the Sea (Venus Anadyomene)

Venus Rising from the Sea (Venus Anadyomene) c.1520

Titian (c.1488–1576)

National Galleries of Scotland
 

The Renaissance Nude | Royal Academy of Arts

From 3rd March until 2nd June 2019

A gathering of great masters who brought the human body to the forefront of artistic expression, with works by the likes of Titian, Raphael, Dürer and Leonardo.

 

Exotica | Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

From 13th April to 27th October 2019

A new collection of around 30 paintings by assorted artists, depicting waterlilies, lotus, water hyacinth, passion flowers and more.

 

Cultural Revolution | William Morris Gallery

Until 27th May 2019

Art of the state, featuring propaganda posters, revolutionary landscapes, and intricate papercuts collected in China during the 1970s.

 

First Amongst Equals | The Foundling Museum

Until 10th March 2019

Remarkable women who have shaped contemporary British society choose objects that speak to them from the museum’s collection, with contributors including Diane Abbott MP and Dr Maria Balshaw CBE, the first female director of the Tate.

 

Imaginary Cities | British Library

From 5th April to 14th July 2019

Explore fantastical cityscapes and algorithmically generated map images created by artist and researcher Michael Takeo Magruder.

 

Boilly: Scenes of Parisian Life | The National Gallery

Until 19th May 2019

See revolutionary Paris through the eyes of the gifted and prolific painter Louis-Léopold Boilly.

 

England: Midlands and East

Birmingham

Drawing out the Sound | The Barber Institute of Fine Arts

Until 19th May 2019

Prints and drawings spanning centuries allow an insight into how – and why – artists have represented sound and music in art.

 

Sarah Taylor Silverwood: Daphne | The New Art Gallery Walsall

Until 12th May 2019

Considering the relationship between women and language through the prism of the ancient Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo.

 

Mahtab Hussain: Mitti Ka Ghar | The New Art Gallery Walsall

Until 31st March 2019

Inspired by traditional Kashmiri mud houses, artist Mahtab Hussain has worked with local people to construct and furnish a house within the gallery.

Heather Phillipson's work during 'Too Cute!'

Heather Phillipson's work during 'Too Cute!'

Arts Council Collection exhibition 'Too Cute! by Rachel Maclean at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Rachel Maclean: Too Cute! | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Until 12th May 2019

Artist Rachel Maclean curates a critique of cuteness using works from The Arts Council and Birmingham’s collections.

 

Women Power Protest | Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery

Until 31st March 2019

Modern and contemporary works celebrating female artists who have explored protest, social commentary and identity in their work.

 

Cambridge

Symphony in Grey and Brown: Lindsey Row, Chelsea

Symphony in Grey and Brown: Lindsey Row, Chelsea

James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) (imitator of)

The Fitzwilliam Museum

Whistler & Nature | The Fitzwilliam Museum

Until 17th March 2019

Around 90 paintings, sketches and prints cast new light on the great late-Victorian master.

 

Leicester

Siam through the Lens of John Thomson 1865–1866 | New Walk Museum & Art Gallery

Until 31st March 2019

Follow in the footsteps of this pioneering photographer as he explored China and Siam in the nineteenth century.

 

Norwich

Visible Women | Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery

Until 28th April 2019

Taking its title from the seminal book by the feminist artist Penny Slinger, this exhibition explores diverse and wide-ranging themes around female identity.

 

England: North

Liverpool

Charles Rennie Mackintosh: Making the Glasgow Style | Walker Art Gallery

From 15th March to 26th August 2019

Showcasing Art Nouveau in the UK through the influential work of Mackintosh and his contemporaries.

 

Leeds

Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing | Leeds Art Gallery

Until 6th May

Step into one of the greatest minds in history through an incredible selection of drawings in an exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci.

 

Manchester

The Enraged Musician

The Enraged Musician c. 1741

William Hogarth (1697–1764)

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Prints of Darkness: Goya and Hogarth in a Time of European Turmoil | The Whitworth

Until August 2019

Art that dissects dysfunctional societies and two masters of the graphic dark arts, Francisco José de Goya Lucientes and William Hogarth, are together at last.

 

Facing Out | The Whitworth

Until 2nd June 2019

An exhibition of portraits by Lucy Burscough of people who have experienced facial cancers coupled with their choice of artworks from the Whitworth collection.

 

Sheffield

Glacier Crystal, Grindelwald

Glacier Crystal, Grindelwald 1950

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham (1912–2004)

Tate

Wilhelmina Barns-Graham: Sea, Rock, Earth and Ice | Graves Gallery

Until 16th March

Paintings and works on paper spanning four decades, illustrating Barns-Graham’s remarkable gift for capturing the spirit of the world’s wildest landscapes.

 

Who We Are: Photographs by Martin Jenkinson | Weston Park Museum

Until 14th April

A major retrospective of Sheffield-based photojournalist Martin Jenkinson who became known for his memorable images of British protests.

 

Wakefield

Criminal Ornamentation: Yinka Shonibare curates the Arts Council Collection | Yorkshire Sculpture Park

From 5th April to 16th June 2019

Yinka Shonibare CBE chooses a selection of brave and bold works that embrace colour, ornament and pattern as a means for social and political expression.

 

Kimsooja: To Breathe | Yorkshire Sculpture Park

From 30th March to 29th September 2019

An enthralling installation using light and mirrors to create rainbow spectrums across the Chapel space.

 

Magdalene Odundo: The Journey of Things | The Hepworth Wakefield

Until 2nd June 2019

Esteemed ceramicist Magdalene Odundo OBE showcases more than 50 of her vessels alongside historical and contemporary objects that have informed her work.

 

England: South

Brighton

Tom Hammick: Dreams and Voyages | Brighton Museum

Until 30th July 2019

A display of exquisitely coloured woodcuts and etchings depicting personal interpretations of several operas.

 

Bristol

Fabric Africa: Stories Told through Textiles | Bristol Museum & Art Gallery

Until 19th May 2019

A stunning snapshot of the diversity of modern and historic textiles from across the continent of Africa.

 

Chichester

Eating House

Eating House c.1914

Harold Gilman (1876–1919)

Sheffield Museums

Harold Gilman: Beyond Camden Town | Pallant House Gallery

From 2nd March to 9th June 2019

Over 50 works vividly depict modern urban life in the early twentieth century, all with a vigour clearly influenced by Van Gogh and Edouard Vuillard.

 

Art Quake: Post-Impressionism and British Art | Pallant House Gallery

Until 1st June 2019

Discover how British artists including Spencer Gore, Duncan Grant, Vanessa Bell and Mathew Smith forged ahead with a new approach to painting.

 

Cookham

Eric Williams (1911–1983), MC

Eric Williams (1911–1983), MC 1954

Stanley Spencer (1891–1959)

Stanley Spencer Gallery

Friends and Family: Portraits by Stanley Spencer | Stanley Spencer Gallery

Until 24th March 2019

Paintings and drawings highlighting Spencer’s personal connections with people in the village he loved.

 

Eastbourne

The Weather Garden: Anne Hardy curates the Arts Council Collection | Towner Art Gallery

From 17th February until 2nd June 2019

Encompassing over 30 artworks in a diverse range of media which Hardy has chosen to create an immersive meditative environment.


Falmouth

Rene Halkett: From Bauhaus to Cornwall | Falmouth Art Gallery

From 4th March until 11th May 2019

A student of Klee and Kandinsky, Halkett escaped fascism in the thirties and continued to create art in Cornwall.

 

Oxford

Jeff Koons | Ashmolean Museum

Until 9th June 2019

A career-spanning selection of colourful and controversial pop treasures curated by the artist himself.

 

Plum Blossom and Green Willow: Surimono Poetry Prints | Ashmolean Museum

Until 17th March 2019

See some of the finest examples of nineteenth-century Japanese woodblock prints, combining witty poems with elegant images.

 

Southampton

Greg Gilbert: A Gentle Shrug into Everything | Southampton City Art Gallery

Until 6th May 2019

Follow the evolution of Gilbert’s work from miniature, photorealistic biro studies drawn from photographs to equally intricate but surreal imaginings.

 

St Ives

Anna Boghiguian | Tate St Ives

Until 6th May 2019

Featuring large-scale installations of cut-out paper figures, this is the first UK retrospective of Anna Boghiguian, an Egyptian-Canadian artist of Armenian origin.

 

Northern Ireland

Belfast

Fashion & Feminism | Ulster Museum

Until 2nd June 2019

Style and sisterhood combine in an exhibition exploring the roots of the feminist movement through fashion.

Swallow's Circus, Royal Agricultural Hall

Swallow's Circus, Royal Agricultural Hall c.1930

Thérèse Lessore (1884–1945)

Islington Local History Centre and Museum

Making Her Mark | Ulster Museum

Until 15th September 2019

A display focussing on the contribution women artists made to the print revival of the early 1900s, with works from Agnes Millar Parker, Gertrude Hermes and Thérèse Lessore.

 

Subject to Change: Loney Abrams and Johnny Stanish | Naughton Gallery at Queen's

Queen’s University Belfast

Until 7th April 2019

New York-based artists Abrams and Stanish look at how hybrid bodies – chimeras, monsters, cyborgs, avatars – can be useful metaphors for the ‘other’ in society.

 

Scotland

Aberdeen

Paul Duke: At Sea | Aberdeen Maritime Museum

Until 28th April 2019

A selection of work by Scottish photographer Paul Duke, documenting north-east Scotland’s fishing communities at a time of sharp decline.

 

Edinburgh

The Art of African Metalwork | National Museum of Scotland

Until 25th August 2019

See how beautiful works in brass and copper once featured as mediums of exchange, status and power in ninetieth and early twentieth-century Africa.

 

NOW: Monster Chetwynd | The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Until 28th April 2019

The fourth instalment in a series of contemporary art exhibitions features the exuberant performances and props of Turner Prize-nominated artist Monster Chetwynd.

Dollar Sign

Dollar Sign 1981

Andy Warhol (1928–1987)

National Galleries of Scotland

Andy Warhol and Eduardo Paolozzi: I want to be a machine | The Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art

Until 2nd June 2019

See how the pop masters captured images from photography and advertisements to use within their work.

 

Glasgow

Stalking the Image: Margaret Tait and Her Legacy | Gallery of Modern Art

Until 5th May 2019

Discover the unique ‘film-poems’ of Orcadian artist, poet and filmmaker Margaret Tait, widely acknowledged as one of Scotland’s most innovative independent filmmakers.

 

Frank Brangwyn in World War I: Art in Aid of Blind Soldiers and Sailors | Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum

Until 25th June 2019

A set of lithographic prints produced in 1915 illustrating the experience of a soldier who was blinded on the battlefield in the First World War.

 

Wales

Aberystwyth

Print REbels: Haden, Palmer, Whistler & the Origins of the RE | Aberystwyth University School of Art Gallery

Until 3rd May 2019

An exhibition honouring the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (the RE), which brings together a prestigious collection of prints.

 

Cardiff

Allt Corn Yd, Llanddona

Allt Corn Yd, Llanddona

Kyffin Williams (1918–2006)

Oriel Môn

Kyffin Williams: The Artist and Amgueddfa Cymru | National Museum Cardiff

Until 1st May 2019

A celebration of arguably Wales’ most popular and prolific landscape painter of the twentieth century.

 

David Nash: Sculpture through the Seasons | National Museum Cardiff

From 3rd May to 1st September 2019

The most ambitious exhibition of Nash's work ever presented in Wales, exploring the different ways he has used wood to produce sculptures that sit between the abstract and figurative.

Alec Mackenzie, Project Officer at Art UK