The 56th Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition is being hosted at the Natural History Museum. The display features awarded images selected from almost 50,000 entries and it showcases the beauty and diversity of the natural world, with everything from Atlantic puffins to Alaskan bears to Kenyan hippopotamuses depicted in the photographs.
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
DUB LONDON | BASSLINE OF A CITY
The Museum of London is celebrating the history and the influence that dub music has had on London over the last 50 years with the Dub London: Bassline of a City exhibition. The display charts the way dub has impacted other genres like drum & bass, garage, hip hop and punk, as well as its links to fashion, spirituality and community. The exhibition features a range of objects and stories from some of the most iconic people involved in dub, including a Channel One Sound System speaker stack, a bespoke record shop created with Papa Face of Dub Vendor Reggae Specialist, and a record selection curated in collaboration with some of the best indie record shops in town.
UNFINISHED BUSINESS | THE FIGHT FOR WOMEN'S RIGHTS
We’ve come a long way in terms of women’s rights but we’ve still got a long way to and the British Library is shining a light on that with this major exhibition. It explores the roots of feminist activism in the UK; the way contemporary activists work online and offline to fight causes like period poverty, abortion rights and support for refugee women; and how inequality manifests itself differently depending on race, class, gender identity and sexuality. Women like Cornelia Sorabji, the first woman to study law at Oxford University, and Hope Powell, the first British woman to gain the highest European football coaching license, are profiled in the exhibition alongside by works by Khadija Saye, Jo Spence,Sisters Uncut and Southall Black Sisters.
ARTEMISIA
3rd October 2020 - 24th January 2021
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, UK
The National Gallery is hosting the first major exhibition of Artemisia Gentileschi’s work in the UK. Working in the 17th century when female artists were not widely accepted, Artemisia broke boundaries, becoming a successful painter and the first woman to gain membership to the artists’ academy in Florence. The exhibition features her best-known works, including two versions of her iconic ‘Judith beheading Holofernes’, self portraits, and recently discovered personal letters.
END OF A CENTURY
Newport Street Gallery is hosting a solo exhibition on Damien Hirst, featuring over 50 pieces from early in his career, covering his time as a student in the 80s and his rise to leading contemporary artist in the 90s, including many rarely shown together. As well as works from series like Natural History, Spot Paintings, Spin Paintings and Medicine Cabinets, End of a Century will also feature some pieces that have never been exhibited before, like ‘Up, Up and Away’, three ducks suspended in formaldehyde; ‘Waster’, a vitrine filled with medical waste; and large-scale pill cabinet ‘Prototype for Infinity’.
TURNER'S MODERN WORLD
This exhibition at Tate Britain explores how J.M.W Turner captured the advances and inventions of the Industrial Revolution, like steam boats and railway engines, in his work, as well as the big political events of his day. Major Turner pieces from around the world have been brought together for the show, including The Fighting Temeraire and Rain, Steam and Speed, so it’s a must for any Turner fans.
SUMMER EXHIBITION AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY
The pandemic meant that the RA Summer Exhibition couldn’t actually happen in the summer, so for the first time in the Academy’s history, it’s happening in the winter instead. Jane and Louise Wilson are coordinating this year’s show, which includes new works by Tracey Emin, Rebecca Horn, Anselm Kiefer, Julian Schnabel, Gillian Wearing and Ai Weiwei.
BRUCE NAUMAN
Tate Modern is hosting the first major London exhibition on contemporary American artist Bruce Nauman in over 20 years. Nauman is best known for his neon light pieces but throughout his career he’s worked across film, sound, sculpture and printmaking, and this display features a number of his immersive installations.
SIN
7th October 2020 – 3rd January 2021
National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London, UK
Things are getting sinful over at the National Gallery with this exhibition that explores sin’s relationship to art over the centuries. Works from the likes of Diego Velázquez, William Hogarth, Andy Warhol and Tracey Emin will be on display to explore how the concept is represented in both religious and secular art.
MICHAEL CLARK | COSMIC DANCER
To mark the 15th year of Michael Clark Company’s collaboration with the Barbican as an Artistic Associate, the art gallery is hosting the first ever major exhibition on the dancer and choreographer. Portraits, films, photographs and sculptures from collaborators like Leigh Bowery, Duncan Campbell, Cerith Wyn Evans, Sarah Lucas and Wolfgang Tillmans will be on display alongside rare archival material, to showcase his career as a pioneer of contemporary dance.
THE COVID LETTERS
Jonny Banger, founder of streetwear label Sports Banger, started a poster project during lockdown, asking young people to customise the letter that Boris Johnson sent out to every household as restrictions were imposed, to articulate their feelings about the government, the pandemic and the NHS and transform the letter into a protest poster. Now Turner Prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller has invited Banger to show the letters, which are being exhibited at The Foundling Museum. The Covid Letters features over 200 works from the project, all created by young people under the age of 16.
ARCTIC | CULTURE AND CLIMATE
22nd October 2020 – 21st February 2021
British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, UK
See how the Indigenous Peoples of the Arctic have carved a way of life in the region through their resourcefulness and through harnessing the weather at this exhibition at the British Museum. With a range of objects, from ancient mammoth ivory sculptures to modern refitted snow mobiles, on display, the show explores the culture of Arctic Peoples and how their way of life is under threat from climate change.
TANTRA | ENLIGHTENMENT TO REVOLUTION
24th September 2020 – 24th January 2021
British Museum, Great Russell Street, London, UK
The British Museum is hosting a major exhibition on Tantra, the philosophy centred on the power of the divine feminine energy that has had a huge impact on religion, culture and politics in India and on contemporary feminist thought. Tantra is often misrepresented in the West – it’s not just about sex – so this exhibition, which features object from India, Nepal, Tibet, Japan and the UK from the seventh century AD to the present, explores it in proper detail.
ELECTRONIC | FROM KRAFTWERK TO THE CHEMICAL BROTHERS
31st July 2020 - 14th February 2021
Design Museum, Kensington High Street, London, UK
The Design Museum is celebrating the world of electronic music with this major new exhibition. Evoking the feeling of being in a club, the display will feature a range of multimedia pieces that span early rave to Detroit techno to the Berlin scene and beyond. Explore 3D shows from Kraftwerk and The Chemical Brothers, large scale images from Andreas Gursky, a soundtrack by Laurent Garnier, rave fashion, graphics for labels and club nights, and more.
TITIAN | LOVE, DESIRE, DEATH
8th July 2020 - 17th January 2021
Trafalgar Square, Charing Cross, London WC2N 5DN, UK
The six Titian paintings that make up his series based on classical myths are being shown together for the first time in over 400 years at the National Gallery. The exhibition, which features ‘Diana and Actaeon’ and ‘Diana and Callisto’, as well works on loan from Boston and Madrid, showcase his talents as an artist and as a storyteller – we can see his expert use of paint and colour as well as the way he manages to convey emotion and drama.
