Artlyst has selected twelve exhibitions taking place in galleries and museums out of London and around the country this Spring 2022. Covering textile art, illustration, sculpture, painting, costume, and design, there is plenty to satisfy all tastes and interests.
Robert Indiana: Sculpture 1958-2018
YSP, Wakefield
12 March 2022-8 January 2023
Robert Indiana: Sculpture 1958-2018 traces the development of the artist’s sculpture across six decades of significant social and political change. The exhibition explores the nuanced character of Indiana’s practice and his perception of the darker side of the American dream. Unity, acceptance, and love are themes that run throughout Indiana’s work and that remain relevant today, such as movements against racism and discrimination towards the LGBTQIA+ communities.
Also on show at YSP is David Nash: Full Circle until 5 June 2022
This new exhibition in The Weston Gallery is dedicated to the artist’s drawings inspired by trees, from the observational and documentary, through to intensely coloured, abstract works that capture the essence of their life force.
Ingrid Pollard: Carbon Slowly Turning
MK Gallery, Milton Keynes
12 March-29 May 2022
Ingrid Pollard (born Georgetown, Guyana) is one of the leading figures in contemporary British art. This first major survey of her 40-year career includes delicately hand-tinted landscape photographs, a flotilla of small ceramic boats and a cast of protagonists that includes boxers, musicians, tango dancers and writers. The exhibition also includes two new works – a film that meditates on the human body as it moves through space and time, and a triptych of monumental, dynamic sculptures.
Sheila Hicks: Off Grid
The Hepworth Wakefield
7 April – 25 September 2022
Sheila Hicks (b.USA, 1934) is one of the world’s foremost artists and sculptors working with textiles, fibre, colour and form.
Drawing together over 70 pieces from international public and private collections, this major exhibition will explore the many facets of Hicks’ ground-breaking work – from her intimate Minimes, small woven drawings she creates on a hand-held frame, to large-scale installations that fill gallery spaces with vibrant colour.
Paula Rego: Subversive Stories
Arnolfini Bristol
5 February – 29 May 2022
Featuring over 70 prints from across Paula Rego’s extensive career, Subversive Stories ventures inside the artist’s disquieting imagination in which she casts herself as storyteller and master puppeteer, interweaving her wit and dark humour to reimagine stories old and new.
Ai Weiwei: The Liberty of Doubt
Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge
12 February – 19 June 2022
A new exhibition by Ai Weiwei (born 1957, Beijing, China), one of the world’s most renowned and significant artists. The exhibition explores truth, authenticity and value, as well as globalisation, the coronavirus pandemic and current geopolitical crises.
Audubon’s Birds of America
Audubon’s Birds of America
National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh
12 February – 8 May 2022
Around 1820, naturalist John James Audubon declared his intention to paint every bird species in North America. The result of this ambition was Birds of America, published between 1827 and 1838, and featuring 435 life-size, hand-coloured prints. The book’s large size (almost 1m high) and its publication as a series of folios has resulted in very few complete volumes remaining to this day. See a bound copy of Birds of America on display alongside 46 original, unbound prints from National Museums Scotland’s Library collection, plus rare books, letters, ephemera and taxidermy specimens showing the accurate life-size rendering of Audubon’s paintings.
Pissarro: Father of Impressionism
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford
18 February -12 June 2022
This major exhibition, of works drawn from the Ashmolean’s collections as well as international loans, will span Pissarro’s entire career.
Camille Pissarro (1830–1903) is one of the most celebrated artists of nineteenth-century France and a central figure in Impressionism. Considered a father figure to many in the movement, his work was enormously influential for many artists, including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne. It opens in spring 2022.
A Generous Space
Hastings Contemporary
Until 17 April 2022
A Generous Space at Hastings Contemporary is a real-world immersion into the Artist Support Pledge community. More than 300 works from all over the world feature in this groundbreaking, crowd-pleasing exhibition. The selection of work on display was made by Artist Support Pledge and guest judges.
The Arc, Winchester
Extraordinary Everyday: The Art & Design of Eric Ravilious
The Arc, Winchester
18 February – 15 May 2022
Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) died 80 years ago at the age of 39. A new exhibition guides visitors through his brilliant career, exploring in dazzling detail the work of the much-loved British painter, designer, ceramicist, book-illustrator, and wood-engraver. He saw the extraordinary in the everyday and, at the same time, made everyday things seem extraordinary.
Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
Pablo Picasso: The Legacy of Youth
Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
13 March – 17 July 2022
£13
A focussed exhibition that looks at the early artistic formation of Pablo Picasso, from his teenage years to his thirties (1896 – 1914). The exhibition traces the artist’s progress, from his childhood in Malaga to his rise in Paris as the acknowledged leader of the international avant-garde. It compares his achievement with the artists he admired and made use of, including Monet, Degas, Toulouse-Lautrec, Bonnard, Gauguin and Redon. Rarely seen paintings and drawings will be shown alongside more familiar works.
V&A Dundee
Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer
V&A Dundee, Dundee
From 5 March 2022
£6
Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer is an immersive experience exploring dance, design, art, fashion and music. It is the first major exhibition on Michael Clark and is curated and organised by Barbican, London.
Clark’s choreography changed the landscape of British dance by weaving together subcultures and post-punk energy with the virtuosity and grace of his classical ballet training. A technically brilliant dancer and provocative artist, his acclaimed work has challenged society’s expectations of gender and sexuality from the 1980s right up to the present day.
From costumes and music to graphic design, Clark is a pioneer across disciplines. The exhibition delves into his collaborations with artists, designers, musicians and performers, giving a unique insight into one of Scotland’s most remarkable creative minds.
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry
Be Yourself, Everyone Else is Already Taken
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry
Until 26 June 2022
Daniel Lismore has been called ‘England’s most eccentric dresser’ by Vogue, exhibited around the world, and has designed costumes for the English National Opera. He was Creative Director of luxury label Sorapol where he dressed Nicki Minaj, Mariah Carey, Naomi Campbell, Cara Delevingne, Adam Ant and Boy George amongst others. Many of the pieces designed for his celebrity clientele will be on display in Coventry. This exhibition in Lismore’s hometown is the first time that his work has gone on display in the UK.