More stories

  • What Does Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration Look Like? A Gripping New Show at MoMA PS1 Presents Startling Answers

    Though many of the artists in “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” a new show open now at MoMA PS1, have been convicted of crimes, only in a few cases do we learn the details. 
    “I don’t talk about guilt and innocence, nor do I talk about why people are in prison, unless that’s important for them in terms of how they understand their art-making,” says Nicole R. Fleetwood, who organized the exhibition of works made from within, or about, the US prison system.
    For her, the show is about carcerality as a systemic, not an individual, problem. 
    “As an abolitionist, if you start playing into the logic of good/bad, innocent/guilty, you start to think about prisons as if they’re about individual decision-making, which is often how we talk about it in a broader normative public,” she says. “Prisons don’t exist because of individual decision-making. They exist as a punitive, harsh way of governing around structural inequality and systemic abuse.”
    Larry Cook, The Visiting Room #4 (2019). Courtesy of the artist.

    “Marking Time” follows Fleetwood’s recently released book of the same name, published this spring, which lays out what she calls “carceral aesthetics.” 
    “I talk about it as a contemporary, robust movement of art-making that takes place across the carceral state—people in prison, in solitary confinement, on parole, or people who grew up in relationship to carcerality and captivity,” she tells Artnet News.
    For artists, it’s a question of overcoming the conditions of their confinement. In lieu of an art supply store, makers turn to bedsheets, hair gel, discarded magazines, and other ephemera to make their work. A six-foot by nine-foot cell represents another limitation, as does the need, in many cases, for creations to be hideable or transportable.
    Dean Gillispie, Spiz’s Dinette (1998). Courtesy of the artist.

    Thinking about the work in the show through the lens of constraint makes it all the more impressive—sometimes astonishingly so.
    For his room-filling tapestry, Apokaluptein 16389067 (2010–13), a dreamy scene of biblical proportions, artist Jesse Krimes meticulously transfer-printed images from magazines onto 39 prison-issued bedsheets.
    Another artist, Dean Gillispie, has spent 20 years recreating sculptural scenes from his life using pins, popsicle sticks, and other discarded objects. 
    Indeed, edenic iconography and the mutability of memory are major themes throughout the show, as is self-portraiture. The prevalence of the latter came as a surprise for Fleetwood when writing the book. It’s perhaps the most common genre of art-making in prison, and skilled portraitists are in high-demand. Inmates—and even prison staff—often commission or trade for a picture of a loved one.
    But the art form represents something more than a link to the outside world. 
    “It’s a way of refuting what I call the criminal index: mugshots, prison ID cards, all the ways photographic images of imprisoned people are used to render them bad criminals. It claims a much more complex humanity,” Fleetwood says. 
    Mark Loughney, Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study of Mass Incarceration (2014–present). Courtesy of the artist.

    Pyrrhic Defeat: A Visual Study of Mass Incarceration (2014–present), a sweeping installation of inmate portraits by Mark Loughney, embodies this idea.
    The incarcerated artist depicts over 500 of his fellow inmates with remarkable consistency: each portrait is executed in graphite at the same scale. But the pictures never blur into an institutional register, not even when gridded together. The humanity always seeps through.
    The most recent portraits in Loughney’s ongoing series find his subjects wearing masks, one of multiple reminders in the show of the pandemic and toll it has taken on the lives of the incarcerated.
    Another, more sobering example comes in one of the show’s final galleries, which is filled with paintings and drawings by Ronnie Goodman, who died on the streets of San Francisco in August less than two months before the opening of the exhibition. (“Marking Time” was originally scheduled to open in April.)
    Installation view of “Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration.” Courtesy of MoMA PS1. Photo: Matthew Septimus.

    Many wondered about the fit of such a show at PS1 because of the institution’s relationship to the Museum of Modern Art, where trustee Larry Fink has been the subject of numerous protests for investing in companies that operate private prisons.
    Though PS1 maintains an independent board, the museum has been targeted in demonstrations related to Fink. Last fall, artist Phil Collins withdrew from the museum’s “Theater of Operations” exhibition, while another participant, Michael Rakowitz, demanded that his video in the show be paused in a gesture of protest. 
    “I’m here and present for those conversations and to do that work within the community to transform these institutions,” she says. 
    “I don’t think any person or entity should be in the business of making money off of punishment and captivity, period,” she adds. “Profiting from captivity and punishment is, to me, beyond unethical. We should be building an economy that does not allow people to make millions or billions of dollars off of other peoples’ suffering.”
    Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • The First Major Solo Exhibition of Old Master Artemisia Gentileschi in London Has Gotten Rave Reviews—See Images Here

    “Artemisia” at the National Gallery, LondonThrough January 24, 2021

    What the museum says: “In 17th-century Europe, at a time when women artists were not easily accepted, Artemisia was exceptional. She challenged conventions and defied expectations to become a successful artist and one of the greatest storytellers of her time…
    In this first major exhibition of Artemisia’s work in the UK, see her best-known paintings including two versions of her iconic and viscerally violent Judith beheading Holofernes; as well as her self portraits, heroines from history and the Bible, and recently discovered personal letters, seen in the UK for the first time.”
    Why it’s worth a look: Artemisia Gentileschi is finally getting her due, after years languishing in the shadows while her male peers took the stage and set a standard for Old Master painters. Now, though, with an onslaught of scientific discoveries, extensive new research, and high-profile auction sales and museum acquisitions, the artist is at long last in the spotlight.
    In the National Gallery’s survey, Gentileschi’s tumultuous life may be what draws viewers in—she is best known for her grisly depiction of the biblical story of Judith beheading Holofernes, which some critics have interpreted as a revenge fantasy alluding to her own rape—but her deftness as a portraitist and painter of baroque themes punctuated by strong women is what will keep them there.
    What it looks like:

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and her Maidservant (ca. 1623-25) © The Detroit Institute of Arts.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Lot and His Daughters (ca. 1636-38). © Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) (ca. 1638-9). © Royal Collection Trust / © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Esther before Ahasuereus (ca. 1628-30). © The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy (ca. 1620-25). © Photo: Dominique Provost Art Photography – Bruges.

    Artemsisia Gentileschi, Judith and her Maidservant (ca. 1615-17). © Gabinetto fotografico delle Gallerie degli Uffizi.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes (ca. 1612-13). © ph. Luciano Romano / Museo e Real Bosco di Capodimonte 2016.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith and her maidservant with the Head of Holofernes (ca. 1608). © Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo / photo Børre Høstland.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Portrait of a Lady Holding a Fan (mid 1620s). © Photo courtesy of the owner.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, David and Bathsheba (ca. 1636-7).© Columbus Museum of Art.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Jael and Sisera (1620). © Szépmüvészeti Múzeum / Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest.

    Artmemisia Gentileschi, Self Portrait as a Lute Player (ca. 1615-17). © Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, Connecticut.

    Installation view, “Artemisia” at the National Gallery.

    Installation view, “Artemisia” at the National Gallery.

    Installation view, “Artemisia” at the National Gallery.

    Installation view, “Artemisia” at the National Gallery.

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Susannah and the Elders (1622). © The Burghley House Collection.

    Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • ‘I Have to Escape All the Time’: Watch Artist Alejandro Almanza Pereda Transform His Move Out of New York Into Art About Exploration

    As a child in Mexico, the artist Alejandro Almanza Pereda was obsessed with filmmaker John Carpenter’s cult classic, Escape From New York, in which Manhattan has been transformed into a prison and the hero is in a race against time to save the US president from a ticking time bomb. 
    While this premise is a few light years removed from Almanza Pereda’s current life, he felt a kinship with it when he made the radical decision to leave New York (and its outrageous rent) for his native Mexico City. For the artist, New York may not have been a literal prison, as it was depicted in Escape from New York, but it became a figurative one that he describes as “a playground for really privileged people.”
    In an exclusive interview filmed as part of Art21’s New York Close Up series, the artist tasks himself with a seemingly impossible mission: to create an entirely new body of work in the three weeks between the time he purchased a one-way ticket for Mexico and the day his plane departed.

    Production still from the Art21 “New York Close Up” film “Alejandro Almanza Pereda Escapes from New York.” © Art21, Inc. 2015.

    Instead of dwelling on his impending departure, Almanza Pereda channels his frenetic energy into his new project, riffing on Dutch still life paintings by staging similar tableaux that have a twist: the objects are underwater and upside down. The artist gathers knickknacks he accumulated in his Hunter College studio and goes shopping in Chinatown to find more objects. He recounts a lifelong fascination with underwater exploration, Jacques Cousteau, and sea creatures.
    Here, on the surface, everything stays put—the gravity,” he tells Art21. “In the water, you can use those levitations to kind of create different sculptures in a way. It’s pretty spectacular.”
    In the video, Almanza Pereda goes through a bittersweet tour of Chinatown, which he considers one of the most quintessentially New York neighborhoods, as he prepares his final work and his impending escape from the city.
    “I have to say that I think everybody in the world should live in New York at least one or two years to just, kind of, make sense,” he says. “But it’s not the only lifestyle you can have. It’s not the only way of doing things.” Though he is sad to leave New York, the artist isn’t thinking he’ll be in Mexico City forever. “So I might escape from Mexico City, you know? I might go to LA and escape from there. I have to escape all the time.”

    Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Art in the Twenty-First Century below. The brand new 10th season of the show is available now at Art21.org. 
    [embedded content]
    This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.
    Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • An Eagle-Eyed Art Lover Rediscovered a Long-Lost Jacob Lawrence Painting After Recognizing It in a Friend’s Apartment

    A sharp-eyed visitor to “Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle,” an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, has identified a long-lost artwork by the pioneering African American Modernist that was hiding in plain sight—just across the park from the museum.
    The lost painting, which belongs to Lawrence’s “Struggle: From the History of the American People” series (1954–56), was missing for 60 years, and has now been reunited with its companion works for the exhibition. The panel belongs to two neighbors of the visitor who spotted the work, and was purchased by the couple on the cheap around Christmas 1960, at a charity auction for a music school.
    The person who recognized the work had been to the Met exhibition, and suggested the couple reach out to the museum. (The couple that owns the painting are not art collectors and wish to remain anonymous.)
    “It is rare to make a discovery of this significance in modern art, and it is thrilling that a local visitor is responsible,” Met director Max Hollein said in a statement.
    Jacob Lawrence, Panel 27. . . . for freedom we want and will have, for we have served this cruel land long enuff . . . —A Georgia Slave, 1810, (1956). From Struggle Series, 1954–56. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

    Randall Griffey and Sylvia Yount, who organized the traveling show’s Met iteration, were only CC’d on emails about the possible find last week, reports the New York Times.
    Isabelle Duvernois, the Met’s modern paintings conservator, was promptly dispatched to the couple’s apartment and determined that not only was the painting authentic, it had been well cared-for and was ready to join the exhibition in short order.
    Lawrence (1917–2000) painted the 30-panel “Struggle” series during the civil rights movement to highlight the roles of Black people, Native Americans, and women in building the country’s democracy.
    Unlike the artist’s nine other series, which are all owned in their entirety by public collections, “Struggle” was purchased by a private collector, William Meyers, after two shows at Charles Alan’s New York gallery failed to attract an institutional buyer. It hasn’t been seen all together since the dealer’s 1958 show.
    Jacob Lawrence poses in his Seattle, Washington, studio. Photo by George Rose/Getty Images.

    Without a clause in the sales contract requiring the series stay intact, Meyers soon began selling the paintings individually. The current exhibition, which originated in January at the Peabody-Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is set to travel—in its newly expanded form—to Birmingham, Alabama; Seattle, Washington; and Washington, DC.
    There were no existing photographs of the newly rediscovered work, panel 16 in the series, which was known only by its title, here are combustibles in every State, which a spark might set fire to. —Washington, 26 December 1786.
    “Since reuniting the ‘Struggle series,’ the absence of panel 16 has been felt acutely. Represented in our galleries as an empty frame, it was a mystery that we were all eager to solve,” Peabody-Essex Museum director Brian Kennedy said in a statement. “We are thrilled to learn of its discovery—one that came about thanks to close looking and careful observation by a museum visitor.”
    Jacob Lawrence, Panel 25. I cannot speak sufficiently in praise of the firmness and deliberation with which my whole line received their approach . . . —Andrew Jackson, New Orleans, 1815, (1956.) From Struggle Series, 1954–56. © The Jacob and Gwendolyn Lawrence Foundation, Seattle / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Photo by Bob Packert/PEM.

    The painting depicts Shays’s Rebellion, in which Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays led an uprising of struggling farmers in western Massachusetts in 1786 and ’87. The conflict, a protest against high taxes, is credited with helping to inspire the Founding Fathers to hold the Constitutional Convention.
    “Lawrence’s dynamic treatment of the 1786–87 Shays’s Rebellion reinforces the overall theme of the series—that democratic change is possible only through the actions of engaged citizens, an argument as timely today as it was when the artist produced his radical paintings in the mid-1950s,” Griffey and Yount said in a joint statement.
    Four paintings from the series remain missing. Another long-lost “Struggle” painting, panel 19, turned up at auction during planning for the current show. Art collector Harvey Ross, who owns half the series, spent $413,000 to buy Tensions on the High Seas at New York’s Swann Auction Galleries in 2018.
    “Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle” is on view at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue, August 29–November 1, 2020. 
    Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • FIAC May Be Canceled But the Show Must Go On. Here Are 8 Must-See Exhibitions During the Paris Art Week

    The worsening public health situation in Europe has meant that the FIAC art fair will not be taking place this year as usual in the Grand Palais. While the fair’s cancellation prompted mixed reactions in the Parisian art scene, many are determined to show that the spirit of the art week lives on in the numerous exhibitions opening at the city’s museums and galleries this week.
    Gallery night this year is October 22, with spaces staying open to visit until 8 p.m, leaving enough time for art lovers to get home before the city’s 9 p.m. curfew.
    Here is our pick of eight shows to see around Paris during this very unusual FIAC week.

    Cindy Sherman at Fondation Louis VuittonThrough January 3, 2021

    Cindy Sherman, Untitled #602 (2019). Collection Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. Courtesy of the Artist and Metro Pictures, New York © 2020 Cindy Sherman.

    Shape-shifting photographer Cindy Sherman is getting the full treatment at Fondation Louis Vuitton, her first show in Paris since 2006. The works on view span the artist’s long career, from the groundbreaking “Untitled Film Stills” to her more recent “Disasters,” “Headshots,” and “Society Portraits.”
    Due to the influx of visitors, the Fondation recommends guests come in the morning or after 5 p.m.

    “Sarah Sze: Night Into Day” at Fondation CartierOctober 24, 2020–March 7, 2021

    Sarah Sze, Centrifuge (2017). Presented at Haus Der Kunst © Sarah Sze Photo © Sarah Sze Studio​.

    Sarah Sze is debuting two new works at Fondation Cartier that will reflect upon the architecture of the Jean Nouvel-designed building. Sze’s immersive installations are meditations on technology and the ways images are shared, transferred, and created.
    Tickets are available to book online at Fondation Cartier.

    “Hélène Delprat: Je déteste mes peintures. I hate my paintings…” at Christophe GaillardThrough November 7, 2020

    Hélène Delprat, La guerre élégante (2020). Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Christophe Gaillard.

    As the show’s title indicates, Delprat’s work is suffused with self deprecation, and yet, the artist says she persists because it’s her nature to keep doing things despite the pain they cause. In this case, it’s to our benefit, as the large-scale installation works combine fictional characters and universal themes in a delightful combination.

    “Wu Tsang: visionary company” at Lafayette AnticipationsThrough January 3, 2021
    Wu Tsang, production still, “The show is over” (2020), photo by Diana Pfammatter. Produced by Schauspielhaus Zürich, co-commissioned by Lafayette Foundation. Courtesy of the artist and Galerie Isabella Bortolozzi, Berlin.

    For the US artist’s first exhibition in France, Wu Tsang is presenting an immersive show including recent and past film, performance, and sculpture work, centered around the artist’s 2020 work The show is over, a multi-layered opera about liberation and alienation in which dancers perform to the rhythm of the African American poet and academic Fred Moten’s text Come on, get it!
    Visitors do not need to book a ticket but may have to wait if the gallery is busy.

    “Oscar Murillo: News” at David ZwirnerThrough December 19
    Oscar Murillo, manifestation (2019-2020). ©Oscar Murillo Courtesy the artist and David Zwirner.

    Oscar Murillo is showing paintings made while he was in quarantine in Colombia in the spring and summer of 2020. Part of his ongoing “manifestation” series, the works are the largest and most frenetic of the series to date, reflecting the heightened state of global anxiety during the present moment.
    Appointments are encouraged but not required and can be booked online.

    “Yesn’t” at Galerie SultanaThrough October 31 More

  • ‘I Want to Experience the Complexity of the World’: Watch Artist Liu Xiaodong Travel to the US Border to Paint Scenes of Moral Ambiguity

    For contemporary artist Liu Xiaodong, personal history is the greatest source of inspiration. His childhood in rural China and his adolescence spent in Beijing studying to be an artist inform his practice even as he travels and shows internationally today, framing the way he sees the world.
    Best known for his massive paintings depicting everyday people he comes across, Liu often works en plein air, setting up his canvases outside, quickly sketching an outline, getting to know his subjects, and taking photographs to work from later in the studio.
    In an exclusive interview with Art21 as part of its new 10th season of Art in the Twenty-First Century, the artist is seen on a trip to a small town in Texas, just over the US-Mexico border. The border town is inextricably linked to President’s Trump’s anti-immigration policies and the conflict that border patrol officers face monitoring the wall.
    “I prefer to paint places that can’t be easily judged by a single value system,” the artist tells Art21. “I want to experience the complexity of the world.” 

    Video still from Art21 of Liu working on Tom, his Family, and his Friends (2020). Courtesy the artist and Massimo De Carlo, Milan/London/Hong Kong.

    In the video, the artist is seen painting County Sheriff Tom Schmerber and his family, some of whom live across the border in Mexico. Schmerber was interviewed on TV explaining that while he doesn’t approve of Trump’s wall, if he sees migrants trying to cross the border, he is obligated to detain them. The portrait of Tom and his family as well as other paintings Liu created while visiting the US-Mexico border are the basis of his upcoming solo show at Dallas Contemporary called Borders, which will open on January 30, 2021. 
    Liu sees parallels to his own experience being Chinese in America. “Many people don’t like China now, I know…” he says, adding that while politics only leaves room for black or white, art allows for nuance. “For artists, we’re always looking for a different path.” 

    Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Art in the Twenty-First Century below. The brand new 10th season of the show is available now at Art21.org. 
    [embedded content]
    This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.

    Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • ‘We as Artists Need to Intervene’: Watch Rafael Lozano-Hemmer Build an Interactive Art Installation That Straddles the US-Mexico Border

    If you happened to be in El Paso, Texas or Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua back in 2019 and looked up at the night sky, you may have seen what looked like search lights beaming over the landscape as voices echoed across the US-Mexico border.
    Those lights were part of a large-scale outdoor installation by Mexican-born artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, whose participatory works employ advanced technology like robotics and heart-rate sensors to inspire civic engagement. In an exclusive interview as part of Art21’s brand new season of “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” Lozano-Hemmer describes the work, titled Border Tuner, which he conceived as an antidote to the commentary on President Trump’s border wall.

    Production still from “Rafael Lozano-Hemmer in ‘Borderlands,’” an extended presentation of the artist’s segment from “Art in the Twenty-First Century,” Season 10. © Art21, Inc. 2020.

    “People there are sick of the wall,” Lozano-Hemmer explains. “They want to talk about the ways in which the two societies interpenetrate.” That’s why the artist came up with the poetic “symbolic bridge” that converted voices into lights, allowing individuals to speak for themselves, as well as for others who may not have a platform.
    “Perhaps the most important role that art can play is that of making complexity visible,” Lozano-Hemmer tells Art21. “We as artists need to intervene and complicate things to show the dynamics and the interrelations that take place between the two sides.” In Border Tuner and other light installations, the artist is able to “interrupt the normal ways” of communicating, allowing everyday people to step into abstract, creative roles.

    Watch the video, which originally appeared as part of Art21’s series Art in the Twenty-First Century below. The brand new 10th season of the show is available now at Art21.org. 
    [embedded content]
    This is an installment of “Art on Video,” a collaboration between Artnet News and Art21 that brings you clips of newsmaking artists. A new series of the nonprofit Art21’s flagship series Art in the Twenty-First Century is available now on PBS. Catch all episodes of other series like New York Close Up and Extended Play and learn about the organization’s educational programs at Art21.org.

    Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More

  • 9 Megawatt Museum Shows to See During Frieze Week, From a Bruce Nauman Survey to Artemisia Gentileschi’s Big Retrospective

    Fall in London is usually synonymous with Frieze Art Fair taking place under massive white tents in Regents Park. This year is a little different, with the event going online, but London’s museums are still pulling out all the stops with blockbuster exhibitions.
    From Tate Modern’s survey of Bruce Nauman, his first in more than 20 years in the UK, to the long-awaited exhibition of Artemisia Gentileschi at the National Gallery, here are our picks for what you shouldn’t miss this Frieze week.

    “Ann Veronica Janssens: Hot Pink Turquoise” at South London GalleryThrough November 29, 2020

    Ann Veronica Janssens at the South London Gallery. Installation view of Candy Sculpture 405–805/2–405 (2019). Photo by Andy Stagg.

    A few key works present a highly Instagrammable overview of the Belgian artist’s four-decade interest in light and its impact on our perception. The centerpiece of the exhibition, which takes place across both of South London Gallery’s spaces, is an expanse of shifting colored glitter, which will be replaced halfway through the show’s run by a group of Janssens’s reflective-wheeled Bikes.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    Artemisia Gentileschi at the National GalleryThrough January 24, 2021

    Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Beheading Holofernes (1620–1621). Collection of the Uffizi Galleries

    Arguably the biggest show of the year, “Artmeisia”—which examines the work of the most famous female artist of the 17th-century, Artemisia Gentileschi, a Baroque art star before she fell into relative obscurity—was beset with postponements due to the lockdown. But after opening to critics with rave reviews, the show is now ready for the public. 
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    Bruce Nauman at Tate ModernThrough February 21, 2021

    Bruce Nauman, MAPPING THE STUDIO II with color shift, flip, flop, & flip/flop (Fat Chance John Cage) (2001). © Bruce Nauman/ARS, NY and DACS, London 2020. Courtesy of Tate.

    The first major exhibition of the American artist in the UK more than two decades, this overview asserts Nauman’s dominance in genres including video, sound, performance, and sculpture.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    “Thao Nguyen Phan: Becoming Alluvium” at Chisenhale GalleryThrough December 6

    Thao Nguyen Phan, Becoming Alluvium (2019). Installation view, Chisenhale Gallery, 2020. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Andy Keate.

    For the Ho Chi Minh City-based artist’s first institutional solo show in the UK, Phan continues her ongoing research into the Mekong River and its entanglements with narratives of industrialization, food security, and ecological sustainability through a single-channel film and a series of lacquer and silk paintings.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.

    Summer Exhibition 2020 at the Royal AcademyThrough January 3, 2021

    A view of the Summer Exhibition 2020. Photo: © Royal Academy of Arts / David Parry.

    The annual summertime group show, which sees a wide variety of works by emerging and established artists, will take place throughout the winter this year. This year’s presentation includes works by Tracey Emin, Julian Schnabel, and Anselm Kiefer, but there will be lots more to discover.
    Ticket must be booked in advance.

    “Ai Weiwei: History of Bombs” at Imperial War Museum LondonThrough May 24, 2021

    A view of “Ai Weiwei: History of Bombs” at the Imperial War Museum London. © IWM, Ai Weiwei.

    This site-specific installation takes over the entirety of the museum’s atrium for the first time in the institution’s history. The show focuses on how humans try to solve crises using destructive measures. 
    Ticket must be booked in advance. 

    “A Countervailing Theory” by Toyin Ojih Odutola at the BarbicanThrough January 24, 2021

    A view of Toyin Ojih Odutola’s “A Countervailing Theory.” © Toyin Ojih Odutola. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York. Photo: Tim Whitby / Getty Images

    For the Nigerian-American artist’s first UK commission, Odutola presents a site-specific installation of a new series of powerful drawings that travel along the nearly 300 feet of the Barbican. The show also includes an immersive soundscape by conceptual sound artist Peter Adjaye. 
    Ticket must be booked in advance.

    “Nalini Malani: Can You Hear Me?” at Whitechapel GalleryThrough June 6, 2021

    Nalini Malani, Can You Hear Me? (2020). Photo: Ranabir Das © Nalini Malani.

    This show presents a new commission by the Karachi-born artist, whose 50-year career as an artist-activist has touched on themes of violence, feminism, colonialism, and identity. Malani’s surrealist-inflected images bring humor to some of the horrific ideas she illustrates.
    Ticket must be booked in advance. 

    “Solos” at Goldsmiths CCAThrough December 13

    A work by Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom in “Solos.” Photo by Mark Blower.

    Goldsmiths has commissioned new works from four emerging artists: Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom, Emma Cousin, Lindsey Mendick, and Hardeep Pandhal. All of the works on view were created during lockdown and either explicitly or implicitly tell the story of the impact of the past several months on the artists’ works.
    Tickets must be booked in advance.
    Follow artnet News on Facebook:Want to stay ahead of the art world? Subscribe to our newsletter to get the breaking news, eye-opening interviews, and incisive critical takes that drive the conversation forward. More