UK exhibitions to see in 2023
Our picks for the best exhibitions showing around the UK this year...
By
Adam Wells
January 24, 2023
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
Alberta Whittle: Create Dangerously at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh
The largest solo show of Barbadian-Scottish artist Alberta Whittle yet, Create Dangerously is set to take up the entire ground floor of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art’s Modern One building in Edinburgh. Bringing together sculptures, digital collage and watercolours, Whittle’s works present a symbolic investigation into the links between historical colonialism and contemporary police brutality, filtered through the deeply personal lens of family and belonging. While the exhibition ultimately presents a message of hope, it is unflinching in its depictions of colonialism’s brutality, spotlighting Scotland’s complicity in the transatlantic trade in enslaved people and other structures of white supremacy; Whittle herself encourages visitors not to view “racism and police brutality [as just] an English problem or an American problem”, but to consider the ways that these damaging systems present themselves throughout society. Also on display alongside artworks created specifically for the exhibition are Whittle’s large-scale tapestry Entanglement is more than blood and her film Lagareh – The Last Born, both of which were recently displayed at the Venice Biennale.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters at Tate Liverpool
While this exhibition may have been showing at Tate Liverpool since September, Dark Waters still stands as one of the UK’s must-see exhibitions for the remainder of its run. Almost a third of JMW Turner’s paintings feature the sea, to the extent that his works defined an entirely new marine aesthetic in British art. The paintings, sketchbooks and works on paper on display here, including Snow Storm - Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842), A Disaster at Sea (c.1835), and Sunrise with Sea Monsters (c.1845), see Turner’s style develop across his career, as well as illustrating the British Isles’ rapidly changing relationship with its coastline. Conceived as part of Tate’s initiative to spotlight new perspectives of British art, the exhibition displays some of Turner’s most famous seascapes against the backdrop of soundscapes by Sierra Leone-born artist and musician Lamin Fofana. The narratives of the sea presented by this exhibition - sometimes complimentary, sometimes contrasting - lead to a unique framing of Turner’s works; while his paintings portray the dangers of the British coast, Fofana’s adaptation of works by pioneering black writer, academic and activist W. E. B. Du Bois details the horrors of crossing the Atlantic, particularly the infamous massacre aboard the slave ship Zong. The dual presentations of the two artists - along with the location of Tate Liverpool on the city’s waterfront - lead to a politically charged exhibition delving into the relationships between capitalism, colonialism and British history.
JMW Turner with Lamin Fofana: Dark Waters is showing at Tate Liverpool until 4th June 2023
Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
Showing at Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum from February, Labyrinth: Knossos, Myth & Reality explores one of the most frequently depicted classical myths of antiquity; that of the labyrinth and minotaur of Knossos. Featuring over 200 objects and artefacts with over 100 borrowed for the first time from Athens and Crete, the exhibitions also utilises documents and photographs to illustrate the excavation of the Palace of Knossos between 1900-1905. As one of the most-visited archaeological sites in Greece, Knossos represents one of the most enduring Ancient Greek myths, and this exhibition gives explanation of the potential origins of the mythical minotaur through early Minoan objects uncovered by archaeologist Arthur Evans. Also showing as part of the exhibition is Turner Prize-winning artist Elizabeth Price’s A Restoration, an immersive exhibit made up of a 15-minute, two screen digital piece which aims to virtually reconstruct the ‘Palace of Minos’ uncovered at the site. Speaking about the exhibition the director of the Ashmolean Dr Xa Sturgis described it as one “that only the Ashmolean could mount [as] since 1903, the Museum has held the largest and most significant collection of Minoan archaeology outside Crete”.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood at Millennium Gallery, Sheffield
Visionary artist, writer and social critic John Ruskin (1819-1900) took great interest in the architecture of Venice and commissioned arguably the most prescient works of the time on the subject. Recognising the effects of environmental change and poor building conservation, he foresaw the city’s future of rising waters as an extension of the natural world he took such a great interest in, sparking questions about preservation and legacy in a world where human achievement is subject to such radical changes. Comes the Flood, an exhibition curated by the Guild of St George - a philanthropic society set up by Ruskin to bring art to Sheffield’s workers - engages with the future John Ruskin imagined, displaying the works he commissioned alongside labels and sound recordings by local creative writers, poets, and actors. They consider not only the changes to the city of Venice since Ruskin commissioned the works, but the two major floods of Sheffield in 1864 and 2007, products of the social upheaval and destruction caused by climate change. Blending the work of John Ruskin with contemporary responses to his ideas, Comes the Flood stands as a timely - and uniquely local - exhibition well worth visiting.
The Ruskin Collection: Comes the Flood is showing at Millenium Gallery in Sheffield until 24th June
Make sure to collect your Yamos on the gowithYamo app with every exhibition you visit!
