Australian biennials, African festivals, American anniversaries and European exhibitions – these were the highlights originally expected to dominate the art world over the coming months. Sadly, in the face of the growing coronavirus pandemic, most of these exhibitions will now be closed to the public. Here, we highlight the exhibitions that would have been planned and show how to explore their themes and exhibits online. [Museum of Contemporary Art Australia. Photo: Zan Wimberley]
What better place for an exhibition dedicated to arguably the greatest dress-up artist of all time than a museum founded by a fashion house in fashion capital Paris? “Cindy Sherman at the Fondation Louis Vuitton” is a retrospective of the American artist’s work from 1975 to 2020, with a focus on more recent series, including previously unseen works.
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
Gropius
With self-isolation the new global norm, we highlight the art exhibitions that would have been planned – and show how to explore their themes and exhibits online
At Yorkshire Sculpture Park, “Breaking the Mould: Sculpture by Women since 1945” invites visitors to engage with a form that is even more gendered than other visual arts. The group show “celebrates the strengths of sculpture made by women, but also seeks to guard against the threat of this work slipping out of view.”
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
London
In this century, where female artists are still far from equally represented, fairly remunerated or sufficiently supported, a London National Gallery exhibition dedicated to Artemisia Gentileschi serves as a startling reminder that it was already possible for a woman painter to have a successful career more than 400 years ago.
As the exhibition celebrating the 10th anniversary of Pier 24 Photography comes to an end, it looks like the show is also set to be a farewell. It now seems inevitable that this mainstay of San Francisco’s art scene will be closing its doors soon, maybe even before the official end of this exhibition, so make an appointment to see it while you still can. [Looking Back: Ten Years of Pier 24 Photography (installation view), Courtesy Pier 24 Photography]
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
MET
Hopefully the anniversary celebrations at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art are somewhat more auspicious – after all, the revered institution looks back on 150 successful years. The highlight of the year-long celebrations is the exhibition “Making The Met, 1870-2020”, which will showcase many rarely seen works from the museum’s collection.
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
Fotografiska
Of course, New York is often the place where old art and emerging trends meet, so in addition to celebrating a revered institution like the Met, art types will be flocking to the recently opened Fotografiska NY, for example for “Brief and Drenching”, a photo series by Naima Green portraying queer and gender-nonconforming people of colour. [Naima Green, Pur-Suit (detail) 2019; photo: Megan Madden]
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
Kusama
Yayoi Kusama has long embraced the popular appeal of her work. Today, the queues, selfies and covetable merchandise that accompany each of her projects seem like an indelible part of her oeuvre. “KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature”, an exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden, puts the joyous artifice of the Japanese artist’s work in a new, natural context. [Pumpkins Screaming About Love Beyond Infinity, 2017, Collection of the artist]
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
Biennale of Sydney
Several Australian biennials are competing for competition or, depending on your point of view, teaming up to make the continent a particularly attractive destination for art aficionados in 2020. The Biennale of Sydney, which was first held in 1973 to celebrate the opening of the Sydney Opera House, is the unmissable blockbuster event, featuring 94 artists from 47 countries across six main sites. [Cockatoo Island – Manuel Ocampo. Courtesy the artist and STATION, Australia. Photograph: Zan Wimberley]
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
Adelaide Biennal
The Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, on the other hand, is the older yet edgier and more daring event. Underlining the South Australian capital’s reputation as “Festival City”, shows take place all over town in venues large and small. This year’s theme is “Monster Theatres”, inviting artists to “make visible the monsters of our time.” [Installation Pierre Mukeba; photo Saul Steed]
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The Top 14 Art Exhibitions This Spring.
DAKART
In Senegal, DAK’ART, the renowned Biennial of Contemporary African Art, continues to pride itself on its role as a creative force for the entire continent’s art scene. The trilingual theme for 2020 – Ĩ Ndaffa/Forger/Out of Fire – alludes to “the dynamics and the action of creating, recreating and kneading.” The result will hopefully be the blend of contemporary creative forces and reinvented traditional crafts that visitors have come to expect from the event.
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