The Best Exhibitions To Book Now
IMANE AYISSI
AFRICA FASHION
V&A
The V&A’s latest show is a landmark exhibition celebrating the creativity, ingenuity and unstoppable global impact of contemporary African fashion. It’s the UK’s most extensive exhibition of African pieces to date, with over 250 objects on display. Many of the garments on show are from the personal archives of a selection of iconic mid 20th-century African designers – Shade Thomas-Fahm, Chris Seydou, Kofi Ansah and Alphadi – marking the first time their work will be shown in a London museum. The exhibition showcases these objects and the stories behind them alongside personal insights from the designers, together with sketches, editorial spreads, photographs, film and catwalk footage. The collection also celebrates influential contemporary African fashion creatives including Imane Ayissi, IAMISIGO, Moshions, Thebe Magugu and Sindiso Khumalo.
Until 2nd April
Visit VAM.ac.uk
MEXICAN GENIUSES
Dock X
Mexican Geniuses: A Frida & Diego Immersive Experience showcases over 300 projections, dropping visitors into the work of two of the most prolific artists of the 20th century. Using the latest video-mapping technology, the artworks and brushstrokes of eight of their most iconic works come to life through this digital exhibition, with pieces ranging from miniature to monumental. Through innovative technology it showcases the beauty, emotion and transcendence of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera’s works as you walk through the revolutionary artists’ worlds, discovering their lives, dreams and everything that influenced them.
Until 28th September
Visit MexicanGeniuses.com
DISNEY
INSPIRING WALT DISNEY
Wallace Collection
The Wallace Collection has collaborated with New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art to present a behind-the-scenes look at Disney. Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts displays American 20th-century hand-drawn animation alongside French 18th-century art to reveal the surprising and enchanting connections between these two artistic movements. Drawing on the artworks of the Wallace Collection and striking international loans, the exhibition highlights the talent and innovation of both Walt Disney Animation Studios artists and the creative pioneers of 18th-century France, breathing life, character and charm into inanimate objects.
Until 23rd October
Visit WallaceCollection.org
SUMMER EXHIBITION
Royal Academy
There are just a couple of days left to see this year’s colourful Summer Exhibition at the RA. Run without interruption since 1769, the Summer Exhibition showcases art in all forms – from prints, painting, film and photography to architectural works and sculpture by invited artists, Royal Academicians and emerging talent. This year’s exhibition – under the theme ‘Climate’ – features two rooms of prints selected by Grayson Perry, a structure made of elephant dung bricks, and new work by the Singh Twins, while outside you’ll find a large-scale immersive installation bringing nature and water to the courtyard by Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias.
Until 21st August
Visit RoyalAcademy.org.uk
MILTON AVERY: AMERICAN COLOURIST
Royal Academy
Worshipped by abstract expressionists Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman, Milton Avery expressed his vision of the world through colour and simplified forms. Now, for the first time, visitors can see the North American painter’s work this side of the Atlantic. The exhibition brings together a selection of around 70 paintings from the 1930s-1960s that are among his most celebrated. These works typically feature scenes of daily life, including portraits of loved ones and serene landscapes from his visits to Maine and Cape Cod. The long overdue collection is a celebration of an American master who, in Rothko’s words, celebrated the world around him with a poetry that “penetrated every pore of the canvas to the very last touch of the brush”.
Until 16th October
Visit RoyalAcademy.org.uk
MILTON AVERY
ALTHEA MCNISH: COLOUR IS MINE
William Morris Gallery
This is a landmark retrospective of one of the UK’s most innovative textile artists and the first designer of Caribbean descent to achieve international recognition. Born in Trinidad, McNish moved to the UK in 1950, completing a postgraduate textiles degree at the Royal College of Art and rising to prominence as a Black female designer. On graduating, she began designing bestselling furnishing and fashion fabrics for firms such as Liberty, Dior, Heal’s and Hull Traders, for whom she created one of her most famous patterns, Golden Harvest, in 1959. As her career progressed, McNish took on major interior design projects and mural commissions around the world, as well as creating wallpapers for several leading companies. Drawing on extensive new research and her personal archive, Colour is Mine explores McNish’s extraordinary career, her transformative impact on mid-century design and her enduring influence today.
Until 11th September
Visit WMGallery.org.uk
CONSTANCE VILLIERS-STUART
CONSTANCE VILLIERS-STUART: EARTHLY DELIGHTS
The Garden Museum
This exhibition celebrates The Garden Museum’s acquisition of the late garden historian Constance Villiers-Stuart’s vast archive. Her pursuits included writing, painting, social activism, photography and flower arranging. She travelled widely but lived at her family home, Beachamwell Hall in Norfolk, where she tended a 4,000-acre estate. In 1911, she married Lt Col Patrick Villiers-Stuart and joined him on his military posting to India. Her admiration of Indian garden design culminated in her first book, Gardens of the Great Moghuls (1913), establishing Constance as an authority on Mughal Garden history. It also launched her career as a historian on other topics including the Moorish gardens of Spain, the garden design of great European houses and flower arranging. Sharing highlights from the archive, this is a deep dive into the life and work of this accomplished historian – ideal on a sunny Saturday afternoon.
Until 30th November
Visit GardenMuseum.org.uk
VISION & VIRTUOSITY BY TIFFANY & CO
Saatchi Gallery
Marking Tiffany & Co’s 150th anniversary in London, Vision & Virtuosity brings together over 400 objects from the house’s archives. A visual chronicle of the storied jeweller since its founding in New York in 1837, the exhibition takes visitors on a journey through everything from archival high jewellery designs, Tiffany’s famed window displays and its recently acquired Empire Diamond of over 80 carats to important relics of popular culture such as the original script from Breakfast at Tiffany’s. At the end of the exhibition – which finishes this weekend – guests will have an opportunity to view the legendary 128.54-carat Tiffany Diamond. Grab a ticket while you can.
Until 19th August
Visit SaatchiGallery.com
KLIMT: THE IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE
The Boiler House
Following huge success across multiple European cities and the US, the creators of Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience have launched Klimt: The Immersive Experience. Here, visitors step into Gustav Klimt’s most famous masterpieces in a 360° digital art experience. By using floor-to-ceiling large-scale digital projections in an expansive light and sound space, the VR exhibition gives visitors the opportunity to experience moving paintings by the Austrian modernist, thanks to state-of-the-art video mapping technology used by only a handful of companies in the world.
Until 30th September.
Visit KlimtExpo.com
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