10 Must-See Exhibitions this Autumn/Winter

Sept. 6, 2022

Take a look at our top picks of exhibitions opening this Autumn and Winter, complemented with some of our Autumn Term courses starting soon. 

LYNETTE YIADOM-BOAKYE

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, In Lieu of Keen Virtue 2017, Courtesy of the Artist, Corvi-Mora, London,and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly in League with the Night, 24th Nov - 26th Feb at Tate Britain, London

Yiadom-Boakye's 2020 major survey returns to Tate Britain for three months, after being cut short due to lockdown. A British artist and writer acclaimed for her enigmatic portraits of fictitious people, this brings together works from 2003 to the present day. Yiadom-Boakye creates her figures from found images and her own imagination. Both familiar and mysterious, they invite viewers to project their own interpretations, and raise important questions of identity and representation.

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Hieroglyphs unlocking ancient Egypt, 13th Oct - 19th Feb at the British Museum, London

Hieroglyphs were not just beautiful symbols, they represented a living, spoken language. From romantic poetry and international treaties, to shopping lists and tax returns, the hieroglyphic inscriptions and ancient handwriting in this exhibition reveal stories that are fantastically varied. 

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Henry Fuseli

Henry Fuseli, Sophie Fuseli, her hair in large rolls, with pink gloves, in front of a brown curtain, 1790, Zurich, Kunsthaus Zurich, Collection of Prints and Drawings, Donated by friends and patrons, 1914

Fuseli and the Modern Woman: Fashion, Fantasy, Fetishism, 14th Oct – 8th Jan at The Courtauld, London

This exhibition will reveal Fuseli’s secret lifelong obsession with the female figure through his strange and striking private drawings, many of which depict the spectacularly extravagant hairdos and fashions of the day. The exhibition will explore his fascination with female sexuality and the modern woman – as a figure of mystery, transgression, and dangerous allure – and provides an insight into late 18th and early 19th century anxieties about gender, identity, and sexuality during a transformative period in European history.

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Jade Fadojutimi

Jadé Fadojutimi, Ob-sess(h)-ion, 2020. 180 x 170 cm, oil, acrylic and oil stick on canvas. Image courtesy the artist and Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London © Jadé  Fadojutimi, 2020. Photo: Mark Blower

Jadé Fadojutimi, 16th Sep - 19th March at The Hepworth, Wakefield 

Fadojutimi’s large-scale paintings combine abstract and figurative elements in compositions that have intense graphic energy. At the heart of Fadojutimi’s work is an introspective mining of facets of her own identity and the social and cultural environments that shape them. Her paintings are made in bursts of energetic mark-making. While some are worked on over time, others are completed in a single sitting, and each evoke a memory or experience. Writing is also central to her creative practice and she expresses herself in words as readily as she does with paint, with the diaristic nature of her writing finding abstract expression in her canvases.

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JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters, 27th Sep - 4th June at Tate Liverpool

Take a fresh look at JMW Turner. For the first time, Turner’s work will be presented within an immersive sound environment created by artist and musician, Lamin Fofana.

Although creating work centuries apart, both artists convey the power and politics of the ocean and explore its relationship to capitalism and colonialism. Turner’s paintings focus on the dangers of the waters around the British coast and Fofana’s sound work looks across the Atlantic.

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William Kentridge

William Kentridge, Enough of this Scandal, 2020, Indian ink on encyclopaedia pages. 277 x 222 cm. The Cross Steele Family Collection © William Kentridge.

William Kentridge, 24th Sep - 11th Dec at the Royal Academy, London

Kentridge’s globally acclaimed practice spans across etching, drawing, collage, film and sculpture to tapestry, theatre, opera, dance and music. The Johannesburg-born artist developed his early work during the apartheid regime of the 1980s, and his large-scale productions and animations have since been shown across the world. Transforming the Main Galleries, this will be the biggest exhibition of the artist’s work in the UK. Many pieces have never been seen before, and some have been made specifically for the show.

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alice neel

LEFT: John with Bowl of Fruit, 1949; RIGHT: John, 1933, © The Estate of Alice Neel, courtesy The Estate of Alice Neel and Victoria Miro

Alice Neel: There’s Still Another I See, 11th Oct - 12th Nov, at Victoria Miro Gallery, London

‘When he came in the door the fourth time he looked different… And do you know, there’s still another I see. I could paint him again.’ - Alice Neel

This exhibition focuses on pairings of Neel’s paintings of the same sitter. Throughout her life, Neel developed a unique talent for identifying particular gestures and mannerisms that reveal the singular identities of her sitters. Yet, she was aware of changes within an individual in spirit and in flesh, and how these might reveal themselves over minutes, days or decades. The above quote, in which Neel describes her experience of painting the poet Frank O’Hara, gives a sense of what compelled her to look at and paint people more than once.

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Lakwena Maciver

Installation view of Lakwena Maciver ‘Jump-Paintings’, Vigo Gallery London

Lakwena Maciver: A green and pleasant land (HA-HA), 12th Nov - 19th March at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield

Vibrant colour and bold text combine in Lakwena’s joyful and gently subversive work. Her paintings, murals and installations often reference everyday shared experiences and popular culture, such as songs, fashion and basketball. Bringing messages of hopeful possibility, Lakwena speaks to points of connection and commonality between people, with a utopian vision that dreams of redemption and liberation. 

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Centre in Progress, 8th - 11th and 15th - 18th Sep, at Quentin Blake Centre for Illustration, London

Visit the derelict industrial site that will become the national centre for illustration, with installations by Laura Copsey, Philip Crewe and Sharpay Chenyuè Yuán as part of Open House Festival. 

Sharpay Chenyuè Yuán's Lost Springs, Coming Spring is a 25 metre-long drawing that overlays New River Head’s abandoned buildings with scenes from its active past. She references major moments in the site’s history and the labour of the men and women who worked there.

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Laura Harrington RS

Laura Harrington, Hagg #2, 2014. Ink on paper. Courtesy of the artist

Hinterlands, 22nd Oct - 30th April at Baltic, Gateshead 

Hinterlands is a group exhibition that invites us to consider our relationship with the land and its ecosystems. The artists showcased explore complex histories, mythologies, legacies and potential futures for its custodianship.

The show considers the landscape of the North East, its histories, mythologies and legacies and potential futures for custodianship. New commissions and existing works by artists connected with the area reflect on ideas of rootedness and belonging, human and more-than-human relationships, boundaries, land and time in the era of the climate emergency.

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We hope this has inspired you to see some art and try something new this Autumn. See our full programme of upcoming courses. 

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