Our pick of the best museum and art gallery exhibitions around the UK in February 2024 and beyond…
There’s a smorgasbord of events and exhibitions out there. We’re seriously spoilt for choice with all the awe-inspiring art galleries, museums and cultural centres we have here in the UK.
The exhibitions to visit now…
To help you navigate the wealth of exhibitions happening each month, Homes & Antiques has hand-picked some standouts worth making a trip for. Take a look below for previews and to book tickets…
Colour Revolution: Victorian Art, Fashion & Design
Until 18th February 2024 at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Aside from great strides made in industrialisation, we can’t help but see the Victorian era as a chromatically muted one. This new exhibition at the Ashmolean seeks to challenge this notion.
It opens with Queen Victoria’s mourning dress, juxtaposed with a bright-purple frock and shoes dyed using the first aniline colour, Mauvine – a by-product of coal tar. Aniline dyes produced a rainbow of possibilities in fashion and objects, too – from postage stamps to paints, paper and even food.
The exhibition pits artists with famously different opinions against each other. John Ruskin (1819–1900) believed artists should stick to the God-given colours of nature, while James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834–1903) disagreed entirely, and followed a philosophy of ‘colour for colour’s sake’. His extravagant use of colour was made easier by the invention of collapsible metal paint tubes. The Victorians’ advances in photography and electricity are also charted.
Book tickets to Colour Revolution
Making New Worlds: Li Yuan-chia & Friends
Until 18th February 2024 at Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
From 1972 to 1983, artist, poet and arts organiser Li Yuan-chia opened up his home in the village of Banks in Cumbria to show work from over 300 fellow artists, including Andy Goldsworthy, Winifred Nicholson and David Nash.
In this exhibition at Kettle’s Yard, for the first time, the spotlight will be shone on Yuan-chia himself and the profound impact his LYC Museum and Art Gallery has had on British art. Being at Kettle’s Yard is apt, as there are parallels between the two spaces – both believing in the inextricable nature of art, life and friendship.
Yuan-chia was an important artist of the mid-century avant-garde, and was invited to exhibit in the 4th São Paulo Bienal in 1957, with the il Punto collective in Milan in 1961, at Signals Gallery in London in 1965, and at the newly opened Lisson Gallery, alongside Derek Jarman and Yoko Ono.
Yuan-chia moved to Cumbria in 1967, where he bought an old farmhouse belonging to Winifred Nicholson to create the LYC. The garden in fact lies above the Roman ruins of Hadrian’s Wall, and ‘Making New Worlds’ will open with an introduction to the museum’s rich location.
Alongside Yuan-chia’s work will be pieces by Nicholson, contemporary artists Grace Ndiritu, Aaron Tan and Charwei Tsai, and others.
Book tickets to Making New Worlds
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Frank Walter: Artist, Gardener, Radical
Until 25th February 2024 at The Garden Museum, London
This exhibition will present the landscape and nature paintings and sculptures of Francis Archibald Wentworth Walter (1926–2009), known as Frank Walter.
One of the most significant Caribbean visual artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, ‘Artist, Gardener, Radical’ will delve into Walter’s prolific body of work exploring environmentalism, Caribbean and Black identity, social justice and the complexity of nature.
With over 100 paintings which have never been exhibited before, and a newly commissioned immersive set design, this exhibition will transport visitors to the warm climate of Walter’s ‘castle on a hill’ studio in coastal Antigua.
The Fabric of Democracy
Until 3rd March at Fashion and Textile Museum, London
Throughout history, fabric has been used to express political agendas. In this exhibition, around 150 textiles and objects will be on display, from French toile de Jouy to Japanese robes from the Asia-Pacific war, and Cultural Revolution-era Chinese fabrics.
‘When people hear the word ‘propaganda,’ it’s not usually textiles that spring to mind,’ says guest curator Amber Butchart. ‘I wanted to explore how printed cloth has been used as a medium to convey ideologies, highlighting that textiles can be powerful communicators and that domestic settings can be just as political as public spaces.’
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SHOES: Inside Out
Until 6th March 2024 at The Gallery at The Arc, Winchester
From the practical to the frivolous, what we choose to wear on our feet reveals quite a lot about us.
Featuring around 70 pairs of shoes, the majority of which date from the 19th and 20th centuries, ‘SHOES’ examines the relationship we have with our footwear and the cultural significance of our preferences. Included are some very early objects: an Anglo-Saxon bone skate and a 17th-century child’s shoe, recovered from a Hampshire chimney.
Other delights include First World War trench boots, early 20th-century clogs, boots, galoshes, waders, callipers, riding boots, dance shoes, 1950s stilettos, platform shoes and brothel creepers.
Meanwhile, the influence of high-end designers is represented by a pair of studded Louboutin stilettos and a pair of shoes made by Mary Quant.
‘The story of shoes is not always straightforward,’ says the exhibition’s co-curator Claire Isbester. ‘Conformity to gender stereotypes is blurred, power statements conceal repression, and the utilitarian merges with the frippery,’ adds Tara McKinney Marinus, co-curator and visual arts exhibition manager at Hampshire Cultural Trust.
‘Highlights from our collection will be presented through a number of themes; Work, Play, Protect, Identify, Empower, Transform and Aspire, to explore how shoes are a powerful signifier of the wearer, but also how their form and function allow us to explore broader cultural issues.’
Daniel Arsham: Relics in the Landscape
Until 17th March 2024 at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield
This exhibition has been running at Yorkshire Sculpture Park (YSP) since last October, and is the first UK museum display of work by North American artist Daniel Arsham.
Six of his enormous sculptures are being shown around the park, including Bronze Extraterrestrial Bicycle (2022) and the three-metre-tall Bronze Eroded Venus of Arles (Large) (2022).
Each of Arsham’s sculptures has the look of an archaeological remnant, with the addition of real crystals cast in bronze, symbolising regeneration.
‘As history progresses, all objects become antiquated and, in some way, they all become ruins or relics, disused or buried,’ the artist says. ‘In 1,000 years, everything that we own will inevitably become one of those things. I don’t particularly see that as having an apocalyptic quality – it’s sort of just the march of time moving on.’
Find out more about Daniel Arsham: Relics in the Landscape
Work Life: Life’s Work
Until 7th April at Harley Foundation, North Nottinghamshire
Set up in 1978 by Ivy, Duchess of Portland, the Harley Foundation is a charitable trust developed to ‘encourage creativity in us all’. With this in mind, its new exhibition is not just a celebration of its current makers in residence, but also a chance for the wider community to get involved and channel their inner creative.
In total, 22 artists and sculptors, restorers and potters, metalsmiths and conservators, will be presenting work that has been specifically created for the event. From sculptures crafted from the remnants of the other artists’ studios, to an intricately embroidered death shroud, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the diverse work produced in the Harley Studios.
After viewing the works on display, visitors can head to a dedicated making space, bursting with materials and different activities to inspire all ages. This area will also host a weekly programme of events, including workshops and talks from the different exhibitors. Put simply, ‘Work Life: Life’s Work’ is a celebration of making, explains Lisa Gee, director of the Harley Foundation. ‘By drawing together the varied work undertaken at the Harley Studios, we see what ties these objects together is a joy of making – and we invite visitors to find this same joy in our making studio.’
Find out more about Work Life: Life’s Work
Lucy Harwood: Bold Impressions
Until 14th April at Firstsite, Colchester
As part of its ongoing series of exhibitions dedicated to painters of The East Anglian School of Painting and Drawing at Benton End, it’s now the turn of Lucy Harwood (1893–1972) to enjoy the spotlight.
Described by artist Matthew Smith as having ‘great delicacy and detail, bold palette and flamboyant impasto’, Harwood’s artworks display an immediacy of colour and energy, filling the space with vibrancy and confidence.
She described herself as Post-Impressionist and had a clear affinity for the likes of Gauguin and Van Gogh. Her paintings ranged from landscapes to still lifes and portraits.
As a child, an operation on her arm left her partially paralysed on her right side. Harwood was forced to abandon her dream of becoming a pianist and turned to painting instead. She enrolled at the Slade School of Fine Art, continuing her studies at the East Anglian School of Printing and Drawing in Dedham, run by Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines. She stayed with the school after it relocated to Grade II-listed 16th-century house Benton End, becoming a mentor to younger students including Maggi Hambling.
Find out more about Lucy Harwood: Bold Impressions
Gillian Lowndes: Radical Clay
Until 21st April at The Holburne Museum, Bath
This is a rare opportunity to see some of the most innovative works of radical post-war ceramic artist Gillian Lowndes (1936–2010). Using unorthodox methods, including the incorporation of found objects, Lowndes’ work occupies the space between pottery, sculpture and crafts.
Defining herself as a ‘materials-driven artist’, her props would range from fibreglass dipped in liquid porcelain slip, to Egyptian paste, nichrome wire, bricks, and latex. Her methods involved burying work in sand and destroying fired pieces with a hammer, only to reassemble them again with ceramic mortar.
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Elisabeth Frink: A View from Within
Until 21st April 2024 at Dorset Museum, Dorchester
Dame Elisabeth Frink (1930–1993) was one of the 20th century’s most celebrated sculptors; in 1977 she became the first female sculptor to be elected as a Royal Academician. She produced over 400 sculptures throughout her career, creating many of them in her studio at Woolland House in Dorset, from 1976 until her death.
This exhibition will feature more than 80 of her artworks, including the working plasters that informed her final bronze sculptures, as well as personal possessions, such as letters and photographs.
‘Elisabeth Frink was an extraordinary artist,’ says Elizabeth Selby, director of collections and public engagement at Dorset Museum. ‘This exhibition will portray Frink in a more intimate light, revealing her inner world and the major themes she explored in her sculpture, prints and drawings.’
Book tickets to Elisabeth Frink
The Glass Heart
Until 21st April at Two Temple Place, London
A major new exhibition explores the incredible art of glass production and manipulation in the UK. Over 100 glass artworks, spanning 170 years, will be on show, by an illustrious roll call including William Morris, Edward Burne-Jones, Sam Herman, Pinkie Maclure and Emma Woffenden.
‘The Glass Heart’ will bring to the fore works from the historic industrial glass heartlands of Stourbridge in the Black Country and Sunderland in the North East, alongside the Stained Glass Museum in Ely. The output of each region is intertwined with the areas’ unique stories and social histories, from cameo vessels featuring classical mythology to etched vases and commemorative goblets.
‘As a material, glass has a particular vitality,’ says curator Antonia Harrison. ‘From the molten state of its formation to the reflective and light emitting qualities of its final form, glass retains an amorphic heart. These vital qualities lend glass its particular power as an artistic medium – one which reflects, commemorates and illuminates our human condition.’
Find out more about The Glass Heart
Kim Lim: Space, Rhythm & Light
Until 2nd June 2024 at The Hepworth Wakefield
In this first major museum exhibition of Kim Lim’s work since 1999, The Hepworth Wakefield presents over 100 artworks created over four decades. Alongside the works will be extensive archive material, revealing the breadth of the artist’s oeuvre.
Born in Singapore in 1936, Lim travelled to the UK in 1954 to study art at Central Saint Martins – where she was taught by Anthony Caro and Elisabeth Frink – followed by the Slade School of Art. She remained in the UK for the rest of her life, establishing a career that has since slightly fallen off the radar.
In ‘Space, Rhythm & Light’, Lim’s multi-part wood and metal sculptures, which she produced between the 1950s and 1970s, and her later minimalist stone carvings created in the 1980s and 1990s, will be on display.
In addition, the show will pay attention to her print-making, which she felt was just as important as sculpting, but for which she is less well known.
For the curious and interested
Until 20th July 2024 British Museum touring exhibition at Down County Museum, Downpatrick (20th January – 13th April) and Amgueddfa Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth (27th April – 20th July)
Physician and naturalist Sir Hans Sloane (1660−1753) left his collection of antiquities, artworks and natural curiosities to the nation on his death, intending for it to be preserved and used for the purpose of ‘satisfying the desire of the curious.’
This touring exhibition will, for the first time, reunite a selection of objects from the collection that Sloane assembled, including books and prints, cultural objects, and natural history rarities, that are now cared for by the British Museum, the British Library and the Natural History Museum.
‘For the curious and interested’ is part of a wider project entitled ‘Sloane Lab: Looking back to build future shared collections’ that aims to develop pioneering ways for people to search across digital collections from different museums and libraries, using the collection of Sir Hans Sloane as a case study. It is a ‘Towards a National Collection’ (TaNC) Discovery Project, led by University College London, and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.
Confronting the complex history behind Sloane’s vast collection, which was financed in part by profits from transatlantic enslavement, the touring exhibition will reveal how and why objects from across the world were brought together. It will also explore some of the stories of those Sloane worked with and relied upon for their knowledge and skills, including indigenous and enslaved people, as well as other collectors, explorers and naturalists around the world.
[Re]Counted
Until 3rd November at The Workhouse and Infirmary, Southwell, Nottinghamshire
This year marks 200 years since the Workhouse in Southwell (one of the most complete still in existence) was constructed. In collaboration with Findmypast, this new exhibition at the National Trust-managed Workhouse and Infirmary will provide a fascinating peek into the lives of residents and inmates just after the First World War, as revealed by the 1921 census.
The rural workhouse was designed to house around 160 inmates, who lived and worked in a strictly segregated environment, with virtually no contact between the old and infirm, able-bodied men and women, and children. Visitors can expect pop-up exhibitions, storytelling sessions and a children’s trail to help them explore the site’s history.
Find out more about [Re]Counted
Part of the Furniture
Until 21st December at The Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery, University of Leeds
In this new exhibition at the University of Leeds, the history of furniture and furnishings is explored through rare and beautiful books belonging to book collector and antiques dealer John Bedford.
Chart the evolution of furniture design through Chippendale and Sheraton’s pattern books, as well as catalogues, trade cards, drawings and manuals from the likes of fashionable upholsterers of the day, such as Daniel Thorn.
Bedford’s life will also be examined and celebrated – he was vastly knowledgeable about furniture design through the ages and his generous gift to the university has enabled the extension and refurbishment of The Brotherton Research Centre on campus and the establishment of The John Bedford Fellowship, in addition to the donation of his dazzling library.
He began his career in antiques with a stall in a Kensington antiques market in the 1960s, and went on to dominate the trade in London. The knowledge he accumulated through buying and selling antique furniture, and building his library, in turn helped to shape the study of furniture history.
‘The subject of furniture history began to emerge in the 1830s,’ says Dr Mark Westgarth, associate professor, Art History and Museum Studies. ‘This exhibition shines new light on the themes and subjects that have come to dominate furniture history as a subject, and asks what furniture history might look like in the future.’
Find out more about Part of the Furniture
100 Years of Queen Mary’s Doll’s House
Until 30th December at Windsor Castle
The most famous dolls’ house in the world – Queen Mary’s dolls’ house at Windsor Castle – was built between 1921 and 1924 as a gift from the nation after the First World War. It was designed by the architect Sir Edwin Lutyens, a friend of Princess Marie Louise (cousin of King George V, Mary’s husband), and together they created a committee to decide on the style of the house and ensured its contents were of the highest possible quality.
Two hundred and fifty craftspeople and manufacturers, 60 artist-decorators, 700 artists, 600 writers and 500 donors were instrumental in the house’s exquisite interior design. The house has electricity, running water and working lifts and even has a fully stocked wine cellar…
This year marks 100 years since the perfectly scaled 1:12 dolls’ house was completed. Visitors to Windsor Castle will see a special centenary display of items usually contained within the dolls’ house, staged in the magnificent Waterloo Chamber.
The pieces range from a tiny concert grand piano to miniature Crown Jewels inset with real diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds and seed pearls. Meanwhile, items from the kitchens and servants’ quarters include a vacuum cleaner (a new innovation in the 1920s!), a sewing machine and a copper kettle made from a coin with the king’s head visible on its base.
Keep an eye on the Royal Collection Trust’s website for an online evening event in April, where curators will reveal behind-the-scenes details of how the dolls’ house is conserved.
Book tickets to see Queen Mary’s Doll’s House
Conversations with the Collection
Until 2025 at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art (Modern One)
Curators have been delving into the riches of Scotland’s collection of modern and contemporary art to bring to light rarely displayed yet fascinating artworks and stories.
This major exhibition presents over 100 artworks in unexpected arrangements, finding bold juxtapositions and visual similarities across different styles and movements without using jargon or art-historical terminology.
The curators, Emma Gillespie, Leila Riszko and Stephanie Straine, have tapped into key ideas and issues of our times in a fresh approach that offers visitors a new way of understanding modern and contemporary art.
‘With open-ended creativity at the heart of this big exhibition, we hope our visitors will feel inspired to rediscover their collection,’ says Stephanie.
Highlights include a ‘Madonna’ lithograph by Edvard Munch, on long loan from a private collection, a vibrant still life by celebrated Scottish artist Anne Redpath, and Saturn by Helen Frankenthaler, which has not been on display for 10 years.
Buy tickets to Conversations with the Collection
Unseen Treasures of The Portland Collection
Until 2026 at the Harley Foundation, North Nottinghamshire
This display reveals works from the world-class art collection that have never been seen before in public and sheds new light on star items from the collection – such as a drawing by Michelangelo and Queen Mary’s stunning ruby coronation ring.
A highlight of the exhibition is a picture gallery stacked with Tudor and Jacobean portraits.
Learn more about the exhibition
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Coming soon…
What is Truth?
17th February to 4th August at Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
A series of fascinating, interlinked exhibitions will address life’s ‘Big Questions’ throughout 2024 at the Sainsbury Centre, bringing together some of the world’s leading artists and creative thinkers. Kicking off the programme on 17th February will be ‘In Event of Moon Disaster’, an immersive experience that recreates President Nixon’s speech of the same name using ‘deepfake’ technology, in response to a YouGov poll that revealed 16 per cent of the British public believe the 1969 Apollo 11 moon landing never happened. Running concurrently is ‘Liquid Gender’, which explores the relationship between identity and culture through photography, collage and sculptural work.
‘Jeffrey Gibson: I can choose’; ‘Rashaad Newsome: In the Absence of Evidence, We Create Stories’ and ‘The Camera Never Lies’ complete the programme of events. The latter re-evaluates some of the most iconic images of the past 100 years, asking to what extent they have shaped or led to a false understanding of major global events. ‘Deciding what is actually true in what we see, hear and read is one of the hardest challenges in our lives today,’ says Jago Cooper, director of the Sainsbury Centre. ‘As always, great artists are always one step ahead in answering the big questions of our age.’
Find out more about What is Truth?
Sargent and Fashion
22nd February to 7th July at Tate Britain, London
Celebrated portrait artist John Singer Sargent was known for his ability to bring his subjects to life, and this exhibition explores how he used dress and fashion as a powerful tool to do just that. From wealthy socialites to professional performers, Sargent would style his subjects like a modern-day art director at a fashion shoot, choosing their outfits and manipulating the fabric to create the look he desired. Sometimes working collaboratively with his sitters, other times taking creative liberty, he was able to convey both rank and personality through clothing.
Over 60 paintings, including rare loans, will be shown alongside more than a dozen period dresses and accessories, some of which were worn by Sargent’s sitters. Reunited with their respective portraits for the first time, this exhibition makes it possible to see his work in a new way.
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Grayson Perry: Essex House Tapestries – The Life of Julie Cope
15th March to 12th June at The Gallery at The Arc, Winchester
Two of Grayson Perry’s richly emblematic large-scale tapestries are on display for the first time in Winchester. They tell the story of fictional character Julie Cope in two parts and were created in 2015 for A House for Essex – a dwelling designed by Perry for the Living Architecture project.
The first edition of the work hangs in the house while this second set was commissioned by the Crafts Council to be appreciated more widely. A Perfect Match, illustrates the key events in Julie Cope’s life, from birth to marriage, while In Its Familiarity, Golden details her later years, second marriage and a tragic accident that leads to her demise. While seemingly happy, the first tapestry provides clues to the impending doom in the second.
Choosing a 1970s palette and drawing on his Essex upbringing, the artist’s intention was to portray the ‘ordinary life’ of a woman that, with the benefit of hindsight, might appear more extraordinary as the world changes around us.
Buy tickets to Grayson Perry: Essex House Tapestries – The Life of Julie Cope
The Kitchen Garden
28th March to 27th October at Chiswick House & Gardens, London
From 28th March, the formerly ticketed Kitchen Garden at Chiswick House & Gardens will be open free of charge. Visitors this spring can expect to be greeted by a ravishing display of sweetly scented narcissus and nodding tulips.
‘Our dedicated gardening team and volunteers pour incredible effort into cultivating this bountiful space, yet the majority of visitors to the grounds have yet to explore this hidden gem,’ says Rosie Fyles, head of gardens at Chiswick House & Gardens Trust. ‘For over 300 years this walled garden has offered visitors beauty, pleasure and connection, and it’s been a personal aim to share this unique space more widely. It’s really exciting to enable more people to visit it regularly.’
Everyone who enters the garden is invited to pause from the rat race of modern life, sample edible flowers and harvest leaves for infusions. In 2023, the Kitchen Garden donated 957kg of fresh produce, translating into over 2,500 meals, to local food charities to help address food poverty in the area.
Find out more about The Kitchen Garden
Antony Gormley: Time Horizon
21st April to 31st October at Houghton Hall
Antony Gormley is recognised as one of the most important artists of his generation.
His sculptures celebrating the human form never fail to be arresting, from Another Place (1997), his collection of 100 cast-iron sculptures spaced along Crosby Beach, to his 20m-tall, rust-coloured Angel of the North (1998). And his latest work continues that theme, with 100 life-size cast-iron bodies peppering the grounds of Houghton Hall in Norfolk.
This is the first time the work has been staged in the UK since it was installed in Cantanzaro, Italy, in 2006. The ‘bodies’ are all positioned at the same datum level to create a single horizontal plane across 300 acres of Houghton’s parkland and through the house.
Some works are buried, allowing only a part of the head to be seen, while other are buried to the chest or knees according to the topography. ‘Art has recently privileged the object rather than the experience that objects can initiate,’ says Gormley. ‘Time Horizon is not a picture, it is a field and you are in it. The work puts the experience of the subject/visitor/protagonist on an equal footing with all material presences, organic and inorganic.’
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