As summer begins, the art world is on the lookout for new exhibitions to explore. From Zanele Muholi at Tate to Olafur Eliasson, the summer museum shows offer fresh perspectives on contemporary art. Here are some museum exhibitions to check out from Istanbul to London.
1. Tate Modern – Zanele Muholi
A major UK survey of visual activist Zanele Muholi is a long-awaited show of 2024. Zanele Muholi is one of the most acclaimed photographers working today, and their work has been exhibited worldwide. With over 260 photographs, this exhibition presents the full breadth of their career to date. Muholi describes themself as a visual activist. From the early 2000s, they have documented and celebrated the lives of South Africa’s Black lesbian, gay, trans, queer, and intersex communities. The exhibition starts on June 6 and continues until Jan 2025.
2. Istanbul Modern – Olafur Eliasson
Istanbul Modern is preparing for Olafur Eliasson’s first exhibition in Türkiye on June 7. The exhibition, titled “Olafur Eliasson: Your Unexpected Encounter,” will feature a comprehensive selection of works from the artist’s 30-year career. It will open at Istanbul Modern on June 7, 2024, offering the audience a chance to experience the Icelandic-Danish artist’s projects and works worldwide.
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3. MUMOK, Vienna, Avant-Garde and Liberation
MUMOK is back after a renovation. The new exhibition Avant-Garde and Liberation opens on June 6. At the same time, the large mural by Korean artist Jongsuk Yoon will be unveiled in the Mumok foyer. The exhibition Avant-Garde and Liberation highlights the significance of global modernism for contemporary art.
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4. Barbican Art Centre: Francis Alys
Frabcis Alys’ exhibition Ricochet is the much-anticipated show of this summer. Starting on June 27 and continuing until September 1, Ricochets is the largest institutional show in the UK by internationally renowned artist Francis Alÿs in almost 15 years. Ricochets transforms our gallery into a cinematic playground: throughout the exhibition, visitors will be immersed in multi-screen film installations focussing on children’s games. Since 1999, Alÿs has recorded children at play in different contexts and environments around the globe. Alongside the first presentation of Children’s Games in the UK, the exhibition debuts a new body of animated films depicting both traditional and lesser-known hand games played by children and adults alike.
5. Neu Nationalgalerie, Berlin- Andy Warhol
Warhol: Velvet Rage and Beauty is a blockbuster show this summer. The show is focused specifically on glamour as it infiltrated Warhol’s work, from his silkscreened paintings of celebrities from the ’60s to the Polaroids of himself in various get-ups shot at all stages of his career. The exhibition opens on June 10 and continues until October 10.
6. Centre Pompidou, Paris- Brancusi
Before the Centre Pompidou shuts for renovations in 2025, the museum will pay Constantin Brancusi a final tribute with this extensive exhibition. Bringing together nearly 200 sculptures, photos, drawings, films and archive documents, this will be the most significant French retrospective ever devoted to this giant of European sculpture, whose curves and clean lines helped lay the foundations of minimalism. The exhibition is open until July 1.
7. Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid – Eva Lootz
The Reina Sofia Museum will host an Eva Lootz retrospective from June 12 to September 2. With this comprehensive exhibition, Loots returns to Madrid after 20 years. The first show at the museum was in 2002, at the Reina Sofía’s glassed-in Palacio de Cristal. Once again, Lootz will deal with the limits of language.
8. Brooklyn Museum –100 Famous Views of Edo
Utagawa Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo returns to public display for the first time in twenty-four years. The Museum’s complete set of these celebrated prints is among the world’s finest, full of vibrant colors preserved by decades in the dark. While most presentations have centered on the prints’ technical sophistication and influence on European artists, here we focus on their urban subject matter.
9. Ashmolean Museum, Oxford- Pia Abad
This exhibition, To Those Sitting in Darkness, features new drawings and objects by London-based artist Pio Abad (b.1983). For his Ashmolean NOW exhibition, Pio Abad has been shortlisted for the 2024 Turner Prize. This is the second series of Ashmolean NOW exhibitions. Deeply informed by the history of the world and particularly the Philippines, where Abad was born and raised, his works draw out transnational lines between historical incidents and people, and our lives today. This summer exhibition is open until Sept 8.
10. The National Gallery – Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look
The exhibition titled Hockney and Piero: A Longer Look at National Gallery is personal show brings together two Hockney paintings, one showing his mother and father and the other depicting his friend, curator Henry Geldzahler. They’ll be displayed with the thread that ties them together, Piero della Francesca’s ‘The Baptism of Christ’. Hockney and Piero opens on Aug 24 and continues until Oct 27.
11. Guggenheim Abu Dhabi- The Creative Act
The second exhibition of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection brings together 25 works in a variety of media that emphasize performance, process, and human presence. The works on view reveal common sources of inspiration, lines of influence, and distinctive contributions. Two commissions featured in the exhibition underscore the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi’s commitment to supporting the production of new work by living artists. The exhibition continues until July 29.
12. Art Institute of Chicago- Georgia O’Keeffe
The Art Institute of Chicago’s Georgia O’Keeffe exhibition takes the viewer on a journey centered around O’Keeffe’s paintings of New York, the city where the modernist lived before departing for Taos, New Mexico, in 1929. The show starts on June 2 and continues until 22 September. Rather than seeing her flowers and landscapes this time, the viewer will explore O’Keeffe’s depictions of New York.
Photo : New Britain Museum of American Art
