BRUCE NAUMAN FALLS, PRATFALLS AND SLEIGHTS OF HAND (CLEAN VERSION) 1993 KUNSTMUSEUM WOLFSBURG © ARS, NY AND DACS, LONDON 2020
Like much of the arts industry, the impact of the pandemic on the UK’s galleries and museums has been catastrophic. With the rollout of the vaccine, we’re hoping 2021 will be very different. Here are some of the exhibitions we’re allowing ourselves to get excited about.
Tate Modern, until 21 February 2021
Bruce Nauman’s first major exhibition of work in London in more than 20 years promises to be ‘obscene, violent, vulgar, intense and somehow totally mundane’. And if that doesn’t grab your attention, its immersive installations, poetic sculptures and neon pieces certainly will. Since the late 1960s, the American artist has continually tested what an artwork can be, by reshaping old forms and creating new ones and this exhibition brings his groundbreaking use of sound, film, video and neon together.
Tracey Emin/Edvard Munch: The Loneliness of the Soul
Royal Academy, until 28 February 2021
You can get two legends for the price of one in the RA’s latest exhibition – although they were born 100 years apart. Tracey Emin has been a key figure in the contemporary art world for the past 25 years and Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch is known for pioneering the style’s emotional intensity. In this landmark meeting of minds, Tracey Emin selects masterpieces by Munch to show alongside her most recent paintings.
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms
Tate Modern, 29 March 2021 to 27 March 2022
Originally scheduled to open in 2020 to celebrate Tate Modern’s 20th anniversary, the eagerly awaited Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms is now scheduled to open to the public in March 2021. The year-long exhibition will be a rare chance to experience two immersive mirror room installations by one of the most celebrated artists working today alongside early documentation of Kusama’s experimental performances and events – some on display for the very first time.
Lynette Yiadom-Boakye: Fly in League with the Night
Tate Britain, until 9 May 2021
This exhibition is the most extensive survey of British artist and writer Lynette Yiadom-Boakye’s career to date. One of the most important painters working today – she was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 2013 – this exhibition brings together around 80 works from 2003 to the present day. Her enigmatic portraits are of fictitious people, which she creates from found images and her own imagination, and raise important questions of identity and representation.