More Visual Arts News
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'Meet Rembrandt' at Upton House and Gardens
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Wolverhampton Art Gallery to host major exhibition by British artist Permindar Kaur
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Feature: What's New
Posted on Wed 22 Jul
The Midlands has a wealth of art galleries and museums hosting a range of fantastic exhibitions - both permanent and temporary. Here's a selection of what's showing across the region.
TEREZA BUŠKOVA: MOTHERS WITHOUT HANDS
Prague-born and Birmingham-based artist Tereza Bušková is the driving force behind the international project Mothers Without Hands.
The initiative, which aims to raise awareness of violence against women and girls, saw diverse communities in Folkestone, Prague, Brno, Erdington and Walsall engage in creative workshops and public processions. The exhibition includes photographic prints, a major video work, and a selection of costumes, headdresses and ceremonial crowns.
New Art Gallery, Walsall, until Sunday 15 November
SURREAL SOLIHULL
Art lovers are being invited ‘to see the familiar in unexpected ways’ in this brand-new exhibition. The display is a celebration of the legacy of Emmy Bridgwater, who was born in Edgbaston, spent her final years in Solihull, and whose bold, uncanny artwork made a significant impact on British surrealism. Art historian & author Ruth Millington is the curator of the show, which takes the theme ‘surreal’ and features work by 29 West Midlands-based artists.
Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, Wednesday 16 September - Sunday 22 November
PAULA REGO: VISIONS OF ENGLISH LITERATURE
Unseen preparatory sketches and etching plates are among the items on show in this exhibition of work by the late Paula Rego, who is widely considered to be one of the finest artists, printmakers and storytellers of modern times.
The display features three series of graphic works by the Lisbon-born artist: Jane Eyre, Nursery Rhymes and Peter Pan.
Each series is accompanied by a variety of Paula’s personal items, many of which have never before been displayed in public.
Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, Saturday 19 September - Saturday 21 November
RAQIB SHAW: NIGHT SONNETS
It’s been more than a decade since Raqib Shaw mounted an exhibition of new work in the UK, so his admirers will surely be eager to check out this brand-new offering.
Night Sonnets brings together a cycle of nocturnal paintings and tapestry which has been informed by the 52-year-old artist’s lifelong interest in moonlight and the conditions of the night.
The paintings act as vehicles via which Raqib contemplates difficult issues such as human consciousness, environmental loss and destruction of knowledge, exploring questions about the human condition and the complexities of modern-day existence.
The exhibition includes a number of works which have never before been exhibited in the UK. These include The Retrospective 2002-2022, an epic, highly detailed painting which functions as a visual inventory of the Calcutta-born artist’s impressive career.
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, Saturday 19 September - Sunday 21 February
OCEAN PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
Over 100 award-winning photographs from the Ocean Photographer Of The Year 2025 collection are featured in this Lichfield Cathedral display, including the grand title winner, created by Yury Ivanov from Indonesia... Featured alongside the exhibition is Tessa Campbell Fraser’s Whales.
The striking installation comprises three sperm-whale sculptures, offering a dramatic reflection on the fragility of marine life and the choices that are made in protecting it.
Lichfield Cathedral, until Monday 31 August
Image: Ocean Photographer Yuka Takahashi
SHREWSBURY ARTS TRAIL
Shrewsbury Arts Trail is back for a sixth year, with works on show including An Ancient Stronghold In France, a famous 1910 Impressionist oil painting by ‘Manchester’s Monet’, Wynford Dewhurst (1864-1941).
The work has been loaned from the Cartwright Hall Gallery in Bradford. Also included is a painting by Shropshire-born artist Ian Rayer-Smith, commissioned as a response to Dewhurst’s artwork and inspired by the same colour palette.
This year’s Arts Trail also features an open exhibition, demonstrations, workshops, arts café talks and a children’s treasure trail.
Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery, until Monday 31 August
MODERN MASTERPIECES: PAINTINGS FROM THE BARBER INSTITUTE OF FINE ARTS
As its subtitle makes clear, the artworks on display in Modern Masterpieces are loaned from Barber Institute of Fine Arts.
Presented while the venue undergoes major redevelopment, the exhibition is a rare opportunity for Warwickshire’s art-loving community to check out and enjoy six treasures usually seen in Birmingham.
The intimate display of exceptional paintings by major modern artists - including Vincent van Gogh, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Édouard Vuillard and Pierre Bonnard - provide timeless reflections on human experience, domestic intimacy and artistic mastery at the turn of the 20th century.
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, until Sunday 6 September
Image: Maurice Denis, Portrait of Arthur Huc. 1892. Oil on Millboard. © The Henry Barber Trust, the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham
54321 FAB!
Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum is keeping families entertained throughout August with a packed programme of events inspired by its blockbuster 54321FAB! exhibition, celebrating the iconic worlds of Gerry & Sylvia Anderson.
Alongside the chance to see original puppets, models and memorabilia from hit TV series including Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet And The Mysterons and Stingray, visitors can also enjoy a range of hands-on activities...
Every Thursday, Get Arty: 3…2…1…Make! invites children to create puppet characters and build imaginative secret bases inspired by Thunderbirds’ Tracy Island...
FAB Fridays, meanwhile, provides young filmmakers with the chance to design their own characters and shoot mini adventures using tablets.
Families can also pick up a FAB Creations activity bag or follow the International Rescue trail around the museum.
Voice actor Marc Silk will host special Spotlight Talks on Saturday 1 and Saturday 29 August, while Museum After Hours returns on Friday the 21st with an adults-only evening celebrating all things FAB.
Worcester City Art Gallery & Museum, until Sunday 6 September
TUTANKHAMUN: THE IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION
In November 1922, in the Valley of the Kings at Thebes, British archaeologist and Egyptologist Howard Carter unearthed the tomb of Tutankhamun, a little-known Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty.
Now, more than a century later, Carter’s incredible find is being celebrated with this award-winning touring show.
Offering Midlanders the chance to take a ‘breathtaking journey’ into ancient Egypt, its highlights include a Howard Carter-narrated movie featuring 360-degree projections, a seated virtual-reality journey through the mystical Egyptian afterlife, and an interactive digital Metaverse walk-through of the Valley of the Kings. Two ‘exceptionally curated’ treasure rooms also feature...
Organisers are advising that visitors should set aside 90 minutes to properly experience the exhibition.
NEC, Birmingham, until Sunday 13 September
ANDY WARHOL: ART STAR
Wolverhampton Art Gallery’s tribute to Andy Warhol is an Artist Rooms exhibition created in partnership with Tate and National Galleries of Scotland.
The display includes both iconic and lesser-known drawings, screenprints, paintings and photographs from the 1950s to the 1980s. Warhol’s famous Campbell’s soup tin features in the show, taking its place alongside images of The Beatles, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, until Sunday 4 October
TEN.8 AFTERIMAGE
The legacy and enduring impact of Ten.8 - a photography journal that emerged from the Midlands’ radical cultural and political landscape in the late 1970s - is the subject of this fascinating exhibition. Engaging with the continued relevance of the concerns that the journal addressed - including Thatcherite neoliberal reforms and struggles against colonialism and state violence - the exhibition brings photographic works produced in the 1980s and 90s into dialogue with more recent artworks.
New Art Gallery, Walsall, until Sunday 13 September
TROUBLEMAKERS AND PROPHETS
Described as an exploration of ‘art, isolation and extraordinary vision’, Troublemakers And Prophets is primarily a celebration of the output of Elizabeth Allen, a seamstress who lived in a small corrugated-iron shack in a wood in Kent for many years prior to her death in 1967.
Known by her childhood nickname of ‘Queen’, Elizabeth created colourful, symbolic and made-from-fabric artworks which focused on a wide variety of subject matter, from biblical prophecies concerning the end of the world, to quirky comments on aspects of modern life.
Alongside Elizabeth’s absurd, darkly funny and strikingly prophetic creations, the exhibition also features artworks produced by numerous other ‘visionary artists’.
Compton Verney, Warwickshire, until Monday 31 August
CLAIRE HEWITT: EVERYTHING IN THE FOREST IS FOREST
Acclaimed photographer Clare Hewitt’s latest exhibition - a celebration of trees and their remarkable ability to nurture and communicate - is a direct response to a government report suggesting that loneliness and isolation are on the rise in rural areas of the country.
Setting up a studio within a circle of 12 oak trees, Clare documented the forest and its seasonal changes, exploring nature through a range of sustainable photographic techniques.
Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham, until Monday 31 August
SHAQÚELLE WHYTE: SHATTERED DREAMS
Growing up in Wolverhampton, Royal College of Art graduate Shaqúelle Whyte has cited visits to the city’s art gallery as being pivotal in the development of his creativity. Now - in his mid-20s - Shaqúelle has his very own exhibition at the venue!
What’s more, the gallery has recently acquired one of his paintings - the striking and nocturnal Blackbirds Singing In The Dead Of Night - for its permanent collection.
The painting takes its place in the Shattered Dreams exhibition alongside five other similarly dynamic and large-scale works, all of which serve to showcase Shaqúelle’s bold figurative style and vigorous mark-making.
Wolverhampton Art Gallery, until Monday 31 August
BREAK THE MOULD
The final chapter in a trilogy of exhibitions exploring craft, art-school pedagogies and contemporary art practice, Break The Mould focuses the spotlight on ceramics.
Bringing together a dynamic cohort of ceramicists for a series of residencies, the exhibition also explores the ways in which the craft and medium of clay can ‘speak to the future’.
Ikon, Birmingham, until Sunday 6 September
DIPPY IN COVENTRY: THE NATION'S FAVOURITE DINOSAUR
The Natural History Museum’s iconic Diplodocus cast - life-size, made of plaster-of-paris, and affectionately referred to as Dippy - has taken up residence in Coventry for an initial period of three years.
Diplodocus carnegii, to give it its official name, lived during the Late Jurassic period, somewhere between 155 and 145 million years ago. Huge, plant-eating dinosaurs with long, whip-like tails, they grew to about 25 metres in length and are believed to have weighed around 15 tonnes, making them three tonnes heavier than a London double-decker bus.
Dippy first arrived in London in 1905 and recently visited Birmingham as part of an eight-city tour that attracted a record-breaking two million visitors.
Herbert Art Gallery & Museum, Coventry, until February 2027