The Most Enticing Exhibitions of 2023
This year's biggest exhibitions include career-defining presentations from Sarah Sze and Isaac Julien, along with blockbuster shows by Marina Abramović and Dana Schutz.
Sarah Sze, Timekeeper (2016). Multichannel colour video installation, with sound, with mirrors, wood, stainless steel, archival pigment prints, projectors, lamps, desk, stools, and stone. Dimensions variable. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Purchased with funds contributed by the International Director's Council, with additional funds contributed by Ann Ames and Janet Hershaft 2017.14. © Sarah Sze. Photo: Courtesy Sarah Sze Studio.
America
In New York, omni-media artist Sarah Sze will exhibit works both inside and outside the Guggenheim from 31 March to 12 September. A projection on the rotunda's circular facade will mirror the cycle of the moon in real time.
MoMA will present Georgia O'Keeffe drawings alongside some of her best known paintings from 9 April to 12 August, while the New Museum will present works by Kenyan-American artist Wangechi Mutu from 2 March to 4 June.
The exhibition Keith Haring: Art is for Everybody will take over The Broad in Los Angeles from 27 May to 8 October with over 120 works showing across ten galleries.
Asia
UCCA Center for Contemporary Art will present their retrospective of relentlessly inventive Chinese artist Geng Jianyi, entitled Who is He?, in Beijing from 18 March to 11 June. At UCCA Edge in Shanghai, curator Shixuan Luan argues for the enduring power of figuration and concept in an overview of contemporary Chinese painting. That show, entitled Painting Unsettled, takes place from 11 March to 21 May.
The Mori Art Museum in Tokyo will present their big climate show Our Ecology from 18 October 2023 to 31 March 2024. The exhibition takes inspiration from Agnes Denes, who grew a field of wheat on an empty lot just two blocks from Wall Street and the World Trade Center in 1982 to protest mismanagement, world hunger, and environmental degradation.
Europe
In Paris, South African photographer of queer communities Zanele Muholi will receive a retrospective at photography museum Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP) from 1 February to 21 May.
Also in the City of Light, Vietnamese-Danish artist Danh Vo and Britain's Tacita Dean will provide major installations for the climate-centred show Before the Storm, which takes place from 8 February to 11 September at Bourse de Commerce, the historic commodities exchange that's now home to the Pinault Collection.
Painter Dana Schutz will present her fabulous, sometimes grotesque work at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, from 9 February to 11 June. The exhibition is a collaboration with the Musée d'ArtModerne in Paris.
United Kingdom
In London, a survey of video works by Isaac Julien will take place at Tate Britain from 26 April to 20 August. Also coming to Tate Britain is a Sarah Lucas exhibition from 28 September to 14 January 2024, and the group show Women in Revolt! from 8 November 2023 to 7 April 2024.
Other highly anticipated exhibitions in the city include a Marina Abramović show at the Royal Academy of Arts from 23 September to 10 December, and the arrival of a contentious Philip Guston show at Tate Modern from 5 October to 25 February 2024.
Silly sausage Erwin Wurm will show his absurdist works at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park from 10 June 2023 to 28 April 2024. As well as hot dogs, the exhibition will feature new sculptures from the Austrian artist's fashion-inspired 'Skins' (2022) and 'Avatar' (2020-ongoing) series. —[O]
