Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer
introYou’re trying to make the most of summer, avoiding indoor events at all costs? Luckily at this time of year, the art world also likes to escape the museums and galleries. We’ve found al fresco art events all over the world – and some under cover for the odd rainy day.
0/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
1The most attention-grabbing art project of the summer is likely to be Christo’s Floating Piers. The artist’s first large-scale project since The Gates wove a saffron path of billowing cloth through New York’s Central Park in 2005, will see a similar fabric covering floating bridges on Lake Iseo, Italy… Unless the weather or the dreaded environmentalists prevent a successful realisation. christojeanneclaude.net [Renderings: André Grossmann© 2015 Christo; Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 2015 Christo]
1/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
2The 11th edition of European art biennial Manifesta isn’t shying away from the type of controversy generated by previous iterations of the event. The artistic examinations of “What People Do To Make Money” are sure to raise a few eyebrows, especially considering the event takes place in global financial centre Zurich. manifesta11.org [Photo: Carles Congost, Simply the Best © Manifesta11/Wolfgang Traeger]
2/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
3London’s Tate Modern is worth visiting, inside and out, as the new Herzog & de Meuron-designed extension was unveiled in June, followed by a major Georgia O’Keeffe retrospective in July. tate.org.uk [Rendering © Hayes Davidson and Herzog & de Meuron]
3/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
4The Royal Academy’s Summer Exhibition, an unmissable event for London’s art scene is remarkable for its consistency alone. It has been held without interruption since 1769 and promises to provide, as it has done every year since its inception, a curated selection of works by established and emerging contemporary artists. royalacademy.org.uk [Photo © Boyd & Evans, courtesy of Flowers Gallery London and New York ]
4/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
5Outside the capital, Liverpool is making a very solid case for itself as a prime cultural destination. The Liverpool Biennial is the largest summer event, taking place in galleries and museums, but also decidedly non-artsy venues around the city, like the Mersey ferry cheerfully painted by Sir Peter Blake. biennial.com [Photo: Mark McNulty]
5/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
6Across the channel, an exhibition at the Palais de Tokyo created by Michel Houellebecq promises to tap into some hot-button issues. The title, Rester vivant (Staying Alive), leaves plenty of room for speculation. Considering the author’s inclination towards polemics, it is sure to court controversy. palaisdetokyo.com
6/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
7You may never have heard of Büdelsdorf, but once a year, the small town in Germany’s far north hosts big art – in more ways than one. Carlshütte, a sprawling former foundry, throws open its gates every year for a contemporary art exhibition across 22,000sqm. The scale of the industrial buildings and spacious grounds allow for large sculptures and up to 70,000 visitors. nordart.de
7/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
8In Frankfurt, small art goes big: instead of squinting at their work on the pages of a yellowing newspaper, we can admire the Pioneers of Comics at Schirn Museum. Graphic art gets the high culture treatment in an exhibition exploring the experimental and progressive world of early comics. schirn.de [Photo: Cliff Sterrett, Polly and Her Pals]
8/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
9Berlin is always alive with art, but this summer, it can be found beyond the four walls of museums and galleries. The Berlin Biennale will be exploring the accessibility of visual art, in locations that include a sightseeing boat. In July, historic Oberbaumbrücke is transformed into an open-air gallery. berlinbiennale.de, openairgallery.de
9/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
10In times of shuttering borders across Europe, and tensions between East and West, an exhibition in Brussels will compare post-war artists from both sides of the Iron Curtain. Titled Facing the Future: Art in Europe 1945–68, this cross-border collaboration between Russian and European museums is also relevant to our present. bozar.be [Henry Moore, Falling Warrior © The Henry Moore Foundation / ARTOTHEK]
10/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
11Exhibitions featuring works by Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera tend to pull large crowds, so expect this one to be a blockbuster. Sydneysiders will be lining up to marvel at Rivera’s monumental canvases at the Art Gallery of NSW and to be inspired (at the very least to up their eyebrow game) by Kahlo’s famous self-portraits. artgallery.nsw.gov.au [Photo: Photographer unknown Frida and Diego with Fulang Chung 1937 Courtesy of Throckmorton Fine Art, Inc]
11/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
12The Louvre has long occupied a place high on the list of the must-visit art museums in the world. In the future, it might take up two top spots on that list. Louvre Abu Dhabi promises to be architecturally stunning, home to a stellar collection and, once the surrounding projects on Saadiyat Island are completed, part of a vibrant cultural district. louvreabudhabi.ae [Photo: © TDIC, Design: Ateliers Jean Nouvel]
12/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
13Socrates Sculpture Park, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, is a public art space that, like the city of New York, is in constant flux. Sculptures are added and removed, built and dismantled, and once a year, a new temporary building is erected on the site. The Folly competition invites participants to investigate the intersection between sculpture and architecture. The completed project is due to be unveiled in July. socratessculpturepark.org
13/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
14In Manhattan, the International Center of Photography is following the New Museum’s lead and moving to the Bowery. With the move downtown, into a formerly seedy, rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood, the ICP is hoping to get its finger a little closer to the art world’s pulse. icp.org
14/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
15Pittsburgh’s Andy Warhol Museum is pitting the most iconic American artist of all time against the most famous Chinese artist in the world. Andy Warhol / Ai Weiwei shows how the former influenced the latter and how Ai WeiWei is carrying Warhol’s legacy from the “American century” into an anticipated “Chinese century.” warhol.org
15/16
Culture
The 15 Art Exhibitions To See This Summer.
poll16/16
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.