On Our Radar
Art Exhibitions 2022

Wondering how the year ahead looks in visual arts? Wonder no more…

We know all too well that the last couple of years have been difficult. But, caution still be to the fore, many of us will have begun enjoying opportunities to take in art surrounded by bricks and mortar as opposed to the more, shall we say digital infrastructure, of online exhibitions. With the way currently clear for cultural forays to continue, now seems a good time to put some gallery and museum visits in the diary, including established names, and new discoveries on the bleeding edge of contemporary art.

British Art Show | Wolverhampton | 22 Jan – 10 Apr 2022

We called it a “massive, chaotic and pretty lively showcase of 47 artists from all four corners of the UK.” Including the recognisable (Hurvin Anderson, Simeon Barclay, Marianna Simnett, et al) and less so, the British Art Show, introducing us to new talent every five years or so since 1979, tours the country in 2022 – taking in Wolverhampton, Manchester and Plymouth.

At A Glance: British Art Show 9

Thao-Nguyen Phan | Tate St Ives | 5 February – 2 May 2022

With its history and location pointing to a great association with names such as Barbara Hepworth, Ben Nicholson, and Patrick Heron (indeed, Hepworth is celebrated with an exhibition here later in the year), it is refreshing to see a greater degree of diversity alongside such British modernists. In 2022 these include Ad Minoliti and Thao-Nguyen Phan (representing Latin America and Vietnam, respectively). The latter’s work employs storytelling, mythology and folklore, to address issues of industrialisation, food security and the environment in her homeland.

Louise Bourgeois: The Woven Child |Hayward Gallery | 9 February – 15 May 2022

Louise Bourgeois (1911–2010) was an undisputed giant of modern and contemporary art. Perhaps best known for Maman, her 30 ft high sculpture of a spider, there is much more to her practice than sheer scale. This exhibition focuses on the final years of Bourgeois’ career, foregrounding her work with fabric and textiles. Including many works not previously exhibited in the UK, her themes – of identity, sexuality, and family relationships – remain.

PISSARRO: FATHER OF IMPRESSIONISM | Ashmolean | 18 February – 12 June 2022

Celebrating a central figure in Impressionism, this exhibition spotlights Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), a father figure to a younger generation of artists – Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne among them. The latter referred to him as “a father… A man to consult and a little like the good Lord.” Leaving his mark on the worlds of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, PISSARRO: FATHER OF IMPRESSIONISM includes works spanning his career.

Angharad Williams: Picture the Others | MOSTYN GALLERY | 19 February – 14 May 2022

The first institutional solo show for Welsh artist and writer Angharad Williams, Picture the Others (above) will include film, painting, sculpture, and text in a semiotic exploration of power, control, and violence. Taking the form of a gallery-spanning installation, the new commission will seek to question the relationship between the individual and wider societal structures.

Surrealism Beyond Borders | Tate Modern | 24 February – 29 August 2022

When we think of Surrealism, it might be that we consider only the circle of writers, poets and artists who organised in 1920s Paris, around André Breton. This exhibition charts the movement’s global reach, taking Breton and his unruly gang simply as a departure point. Including more than 150 works of painting, photography, sculpture and film, Surrealism Beyond Borders’ objective is to bring to light collective interests shared by artists across regions and interrelated networks.

Suki Chan: CONSCIOUS | Bluecoat | 12 March – 12 June 2022

Artist and filmmaker Suki Chan’s CONSCIOUS emerged from her deep engagement with consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and dementia. This spring at Bluecoat, the project is given its largest overview to date. Drawing on the testimonies and stories of scientists, pilots caught between life and death, and people living with dementia, expect photography, sculpture, virtual reality and film.

Jerwood Arts: Survey II | Sheffield | 12 March – 5 June 2022

Taking the water of the future of contemporary arts, Jerwood Art’s Survey entered its second phase last year, with an exhibition featuring ten of what it calls “the most outstanding early-career artists in the UK.” Expect photography, sculpture, sound, textile, film and installation. The ten – Saelia Aparicio, Tereza Cervenova, Sadé Mica, Rebecca Moss, Cinzia Mutigli, Shenece Oretha, Katarzyna Perlak, Tako Taal, Nicolaas van de Lande and Angharad Williams – were selected by established peers including Emily Speed, Tai Shani and, Sean Edwards.

Kunichika: Japanese Prints | Lady Lever Art Gallery | 15 Apr 2022—04 Sep 2022

One of the absolute jewels in the crown of Wirral galleries and museums, the Lady Lever follows up 2017′s impressive Edo Pop Japanese print show with works from Toyohara Kunichika (1835-1900). Born in present day Tokyo, Kunichika tackled modern subject matter to reflect the social and political upheavals of his day, including depictions of Kabuki theatre. In this first gallery showing of his works outside Japan, expect more than 50 prints capturing Geisha, scenes of leisure, actors and plays.

Reframed: The Woman in the Window | Dulwich Picture Gallery | 4 May – 4 September 2022

In art and pop culture in general, the trope of the ‘woman in the window’ is a common one, most often depicted for the male gaze. Both Picasso and Caspar David Friedrich have paintings bearing the title Woman at the Window (1952 and 1822, respectively), while no doubt many essays have been written about Edward Hopper, voyeurism, and his women in windows. This new exhibition looks to explore how the motif has adapted overtime, to address gender and visibility in a changing world. Includes Rembrandt’s Girl at a Window (1645), as well works by Cindy Sherman, Louise Bourgeois, Marina Abramović and more.

RADICAL LANDSCAPES | Tate Liverpool | 5 MAY – 4 SEPTEMBER 2022 

A major highlight of the 2022 calendar at Tate Liverpool will be their Radical Landscapes exhibition, which poses urgent questions. Not least: who has the freedom to access, inhabit and enjoy our fabled green and pleasant land? It will explore collective activism and protest; customs, myths, and rituals; and consider how art and activism can address human impacts on the landscape and ecosystems. Including more than 150 works by, among others Ruth Ewan, Davinia-Ann Robinson, Jeremy Deller, Claude Cahun and Yuri Pattison, fittingly, environmentally-conscious architects Smout Allen have been enlisted for exhibition design.

Marina Abramović | Modern Art Oxford | 24 September – 15 January 2023 

Performance icon Marina Abramović spent last summer on a stint of research at Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum to inform this show coming later in the year at MAO. Focusing on objects associated with ritual, magic and spirituality in the museum’s holdings, her findings will be applied to newly commissioned performance-based works exploring transitional states of being. In addition, an installation of new artworks will be displayed at the Pitt Rivers.

Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination | Science Museum | 6 October 2022 – 4 May 2023 

With the tagline “The most ambitious exhibition ever staged at the Science Museum,” Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination isn’t hedging its bets in terms of expectations. Being long-time devotees of Sci-Fi, consider our appetites duly whetted. Curated by Glyn Morgan, visitors are promised the ‘bright futures’ envisioned by the genre, alongside the looming threats posed to our existence; step forward climate change, ecological devastation and nuclear war. Framing the museum as extra-terrestrial spaceship, we’ll be there, strapped into our spacesuits for countdown to blast-off.

The EY Exhibition: Cézanne | Tate Modern | 6 October 2022 – 12 March 2023

Just as Cézanne referred to Pissarro as “a father,” by some art historical temporal symmetry, the former would come to be regarded, by Picasso no less, as “the father of us all” and “my one and only master!” Straddling post-impressionism and the dawn of modernism, the influential painter is given his dues later this year in this career-spanning exhibition.

TURNER PRIZE 2022 | Tate Liverpool | 20 OCTOBER 2022 – 19 MARCH 2023 

This year marks a return to Liverpool for the Turner Prize for the first time in 15 years. In 2007, it was the first iteration to take place outside London, with its four nominees of Zarina Bhimji, Nathan Coley, Mike Nelson, and the eventual winner, Mark Wallinger. The visual arts landscape has moved on in the intervening years, of course, with last year’s notable for its celebration of collectives. While 2022’s nominees are (at time of writing) yet to be named, Tate Liverpool Director Helen Legg has said: “It is wonderful to be holding the Turner Prize for the second time.”

Mike Pinnington

Images/media: Marianna Simnett, Blood in My Milk (still), 2018 © the artist. Courtesy the artist and Matt’s Gallery; Angharad Williams, Picture the Others, 2022. Courtesy of the artist; Fog In My Head, location film shoot 2021, image courtesy the artist Suki Chan; The actor Ichikawa Danjuro IX as Kamakura Gongoro Kagemasi, 1895 © National Museums Liverpool, courtesy of Frank Milner; Yuri Pattison, sun[set] provisioning, 2019 © Yuri Pattison; Science Fiction: Voyage to the Edge of Imagination trailer