- Peter Doig: Courtauld Gallery, London (10 February-29 May 2023)
The Courtauld Gallery is currently displaying a collection of the Edinburgh-born artist Peter Droig’s work, including paintings that have been completed since his move from Trinidad to London in 2021. Droig is a figurative artist that incorporates tones of magical realism into his work, capturing serene moments often inspired by the landscapes of his childhood in Canada. The exhibition includes a display of his most recent works, many of which are partially abstracted landscapes based on photographic references.
- Vermeer: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (10 February-4 June 2023)
The largest Vermeer exhibition to date is now available at the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum until June. The exhibition has acquired most of Vermeer’s approximately 35 attributed paintings, which is remarkable considering the difficulty of loaning out his works. Johannes Vermeer is known as one of the great Dutch masters of the Baroque period, with an oeuvre consisting of tranquil, contemplative domestic interior scenes marked by an extraordinary use of colour and light. The exhibition will include his most prominent artworks, such as The Girl with a Pearl Earring, Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid, and The Geographer. The exhibition is currently sold-out in person, but there is also an online exhibition available with available audio descriptions by Stephen Fry and Joy Delima.
- Sleepless Nights: From The 1980s: Moderna Museet, Stockholm (February 8, 2023-January 14, 2024)
The Sleepless Nights exhibition incorporates prominent work from the 20th century, blending work from Swedish and Nordic artists alongside artwork from Robert Mapplethorpe, Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, and other acclaimed international artists. Focused specifically on the 1980s, the exhibition touches on relevant political and cultural markings of the decade, including the financial crises of the 80’s, the Cold War, and the Aids epidemic. The exhibition is titled after Teresa Wennberg’s “Nuit Blanche” video installation, which explores the encounter of two people through a series of 25 television screens. The collection explores the concerns of the artists who dominated the 1980s art world, and touches upon the relevance of those tensions upon modern day tensions.
- Donatello: Sculpting the Renaissance: V&A, London (11 February-11 June 2023)
The V&A in South Kensington currently has an exhibition on the Renaissance Master Donatello’s remarkable oeuvre. The collection includes his statue David, Spiritello with a tambourine, San Rossore, and other incredible works. He worked with bronze, wood, and clay, among other materials and had an incredible versatility in his approach to sculpture. His defined expressivity paved the way for other contemporaries, and the collection available at the V&A provides a powerful insight into the influence that he had upon future generations of sculptors.
- Zanele Muholi: The MEP, Paris (February 1-May 21, 2023)
The Maison Européenne de la Photographie is now showing the first retrospective in France that is dedicated to Zanele Muholi. Muholi is a South African photographer and activist that is internationally renowned for their work celebrating the Black LGBTQIA+ community. The exhibition combines over 200 photographs, videos, and other materials archived since the beginning of the artist’s career in the early 2000s. Muholi’s work confronts injustices in the Black LGBTQIA+ community and gives visibility to the community through a collaborative process that allows the subjects to be active in the photography process. The exhibition challenges the narratives and stereotypes that surround the community by promoting visibility.